GT Snap Shots: Reboot: Rebooted
by LockDown
Summary: Our favorite turian and quarian are both fighting for their home worlds but for very different reasons. Follow Garrus and Tali and co through romantic difficulties, work out daddy issues, and occasionally punch a Reaper or two. That sounds normal for them, right?
1. Chapter 1

**Departure**

Garrus was at a loss about what to do these days. Things on the Normandy really quieted down after the Batarian Incident. On the way back to Earth for her court martial hearings Shepard dropped off people along the way. After all, the Normandy was once more an Alliance ship and having a host of Cerberus crew plus numerous unauthorized aliens onboard just wouldn't do when Shepard showed up on Earth.

Grunt was deposited on Tuchanka and taken under Wrex's wing. The two would most certainly share stories of their adventures with Shepard and Garrus. After all, Shepard was crazy and Garrus must surely be a krogan in a turian body.

Mordin was similarly returned to his home world. What the aged salarian scientist would do, no one was sure though it was jested he could take up a singing career. Mordin spent the next 30 minutes explaining to poor Kelly Chambers why that would not be the best use of his talents.

Legion made its way back to Rannoch and the geth to share its experiences with organics with the collective. Hopefully the experience would be seen as a good thing.

Most of the crew was left at the Citadel, as was Samara. Now that the mission was complete the justicar had other duties to attend to.

Garrus and Tali would be getting off at the Citadel as well. It was the easiest place for Tali to get a ride back to the Flotilla. What she was going to do once she got back, Tali wasn't sure. Shepard and Legion had convinced her that maybe something could be worked out between the quarians and the geth. Maybe if Tali talked to her "auntie" Rann something could be done.

Garrus didn't have nearly as much hope in his return to Palaven. He could go back to Omega and take up the mantle of Archangel again expect that Archangel "died" there. Cleaning out Omega wouldn't really solve anything and a return to that wandering life wouldn't be the best use of his time and talents.

However, what he would do on Palaven wasn't at the forefront of his mind. What was occupying his thoughts was the why; to attend his mother's funeral.

**A/N: **Greetings all and thanks for coming back for one last round. I've got to say I'm glad that you are back with me for one last journey of _G/T Snapshot: Reboot: Rebooted._ As before, this is about Garrus and Tali, so you won't find a lot of any other character unless they are interacting with the principle pair. And as with the _Reboot_ this version is wiping the slate clean and completely unrelated to the previous stories.

Just have to say, for those that don't know, if you don't romance either of them in game they canonly get together!

And as a last note, I will have my own ending. If you have finished the game, you know why, and if you haven't I still encourage you to finish the game so you at least know why my ending will be very radically different.


	2. Chapter 2

**Arrival on Palaven**

Garrus stepped off the transport that had taken him from orbit down to the surface. It was good to feel the warm of the home world and to see his home town again. An added bonus would be hearing nothing but turian spoken for a while instead of the boring drone of his translator. Garrus was convinced government issued translators that were issued, or swiped upon leaving C-Sec, were this boring on purpose. It made its wearer want to learn other languages just to be able to stop using the droning device.

"Garrus over here." A shout came from the crowd. Garrus turned and saw a well dressed female waving at him to get his attention, as were two younglings.

Garrus made his way towards the woman and put down his bag just in time to brace himself for the crushing hug he received, which he returned.

"It good to see you Solana. I wasn't sure if you would meet me." Garrus said putting his sister back on the ground.

"If I wasn't going to meet you I wouldn't have asked for your flight information. Besides, know you dear brother, you would have done something foolish like check into a hotel for the evening before showing up to the funeral tomorrow." Solana shot at Garrus who could only look away from his sister's piercing gaze. Even though he hadn't been home in years she still knew her older brother well enough to have him pegged.

"I didn't want to cause trouble at home." Garrus offered in way of excuse. It was no secret that Garrus didn't get along with his father. When Garrus still came home for vacations it was only at his mother's and sister's combined insistence but after their mother got sick and started to slip away…

"Nonsense. You know that mother would have wanted you to come home."

"Fine." Garrus gave in. He rarely ever won arguments with his sister and those few victories were after hour long fights, and he didn't want to do that in the middle of a public spaceport. Especially not with two pairs of small eyes peeking out from either side of Solana's dress.

Garrus squatted down so that he was at eye level with the younglings. Without looking up he asked, "Are you going to introduce me Solana?"

"Kids, this is your uncle Garrus." Solana said gently as she nudge each of her children from behind her.

"Hey, that's my name." The youngling to Garrus' left proclaimed.

"Yes it is Leto but it's also your uncle's name and your grandfather's name." Solana explained. "We use his middle name at home. And this extremely shy one," Solana said drawing Garrus' attention to the other youngling who had refused to come out from behind Solana, "is Camilla."

"We're twins." Leto supplied as he stuck out his hand.

"Nice to meet you both." Garrus greeted as he shook his nephew's hand. "And how old are you two?" Garrus asked, picking up his bag, and starting to walk. Leto seemed content to hold his hand as they headed towards a public transport stand.

"We just turned six." Leto replied. "We started going to school this year."

Garrus' nephew turned out to be the rather talkative type while his sister didn't say much during the ride to the Vakarian house hold. The only time Camilla ever said anything was to softly correct her brother when he was telling a story wrong, but otherwise she never spoke directly to her uncle. Solana just watched her brother interact with her children. Garrus had never seen either of them before but he seemed to slip into the role of uncle rather well.

Upon arrival at the Vakarian house hold they were greeted by two turians males, one much older than the other. Both the children bolted from between Garrus and Solana to the younger turian with cries of "Daddy!" before engulfing him in hugs. They weren't as pronounced in their greetings of their grandfather but warmly greeted him all the same.

"You must be the famous brother Garrus. I'm Remus, Solana's mate. She never shuts up about you." The younger turian introduced himself and shook Garrus' hand.

"Pleasure to meet you and I feel your pain. She has quite the mouth on her."

"That she does." Remus said earning himself a hard glare from his wife.

"Well, let's get people into the house and settled in before dinner. Then straight off to bed kids, we have a big day tomorrow." Solana ordered and started ushering her family inside, leaving only Garrus and his father.

After a few moments of silence, Garrus Sr finally spoke, "Solana made up your old room." And with that the Vakarian patriarch made his way inside. Garrus followed a few moments later.

-o-o-o-o-

Garrus' room was almost exactly as he had left it almost eight years ago. That was the last time he had come home or had any sort of vacation. It was almost eerie, given how well kept it was. It was almost shrine like, except it was quite clear someone had been spending time in the room. There was a small toy box in one corner, which Garrus opened. Inside he found what you would expect in a little boys toy box; miniature army figures and space ships. What caught his eye was something that clearly wasn't a toy; a C-Sec Officer ID badge. One of his old ones in fact.

"I told Leto that he wasn't supposed to play with any of your old stuff."

Garrus turn to see Solana leaning against his door frame. "It's fine. It's just an old badge any way."

"His current favorite game is to pretend he's a C-Sec officer on the Citadel taking down bad guys ever since he found that badge in your room. It doesn't help that father fills his head with stories, even a couple of yours."

Garrus snorted. "They must be from my early days."

"No, they are more recent. He's had his friends in C-Sec keep tabs on you, you know."

"Making sure I didn't disgrace the family name."

"Garrus… He cares, in his own way."

Garrus grunted in reply.

"Anyway, I came up here to tell you that dinner is ready. And just a heads up, Remus is going to ask you why your face is all scarred up."

"He told he was going to ask?"

"No, I told him to ask. I'm sure father is as curious as I am and Leto wants to know when he grows up if he will get cool scars like uncle Garrus."

-o-o-o-o-

The next morning was the cremation and internment ceremony. After that, Garrus spent a few days visiting and getting to know his expanded family all the while thinking of how he could possibly get someone, anyone to listen to his warning of the Reapers.

Finally Garrus came up with a solution. He wasn't going to like it but if it helped buy Palaven time, if it bought Solana and her family time, Garrus could swallow his pride.

**A/N:**

Okay I know chapter 1 sucked but it was mostly a copy past of the ending I hastily tacked on to Reboot, with some revisions. What do you think of the home coming I gave Garrus? I saw all those story alerts; surely this warrants a few of you to comment. Until next time!


	3. Chapter 3

**Bored Meeting**

Tali did her best not to nod off. Admiralty Board meetings were important, she knew that, but if the Board wasn't asking for expertise about the geth than Tali felt very out of place and useless. She knew her way around an engine room and was a highly qualified machinist, but just because she brought back some data discs did not make her an instant expert.

Yes she had a lot of contact with them thanks to her adventure with Shepard, and yes she had gotten to interact with the geth platform Legion. Admiral Xen though had lots of experience tinkering with geth as well, but it was definitely of a much more aggressive nature. Maybe that was why Admiral Rann had sponsored Tali's ascendance to the Admiralty Board. To have a different sort of expertise on the geth.

If that was the case, Tali did offer the alternative view but it didn't seem to matter. The Board had voted and was making preparations for war. Quarians from all over the galaxy were being recalled from their pilgrimages. If the war went in their favor then pilgrimages might just be a thing of the past. If not, then the entire people would go down in one last ditch effort to retake the home world.

The latter prospect was rather grim but the former was tainted in Tali's mind as well. Even if Rannoch could be retaken, the Reapers were just on the horizon. Victory on the home world would be short lived at best before the Flotilla would be stuck defending a static world. Being mobile in the coming Reaper invasion could be an actual benefit. However, any of her warnings were brushed aside. The galaxy had abandoned the quarians to their fate, and the quarians should abandon the galaxy to its own fate was more or less the explanation Tali was given.

As the Flotilla got closer and closer to actually invading Rannoch, the excuse shifted to the priority being the war for the home world. Tali still attempted to bring up the Reaper issue now and again behind closed doors, but being the youngest and newest Admiral didn't give her any weight at all. It wasn't for lack of trying. Tali could project confidence when she had to.

Years ago she brazenly demanded protecting from the old Shadow Broker in exchange for incriminating evidence on the Spectre Saren. After that, her skills and confidence in her abilities landed her passage on the _Normandy_. Throughout that hair brained adventure Tali's faith in herself actually grew so that all of her bravado was just a front any more.

That helped when Tali made it back to the Flotilla and joined the _Neema_. Tali managed to fit in well but her confidence got her into some trouble. People seemed to think she'd make a good leader, and maybe she was, at smaller groups of people. The mission on Haestrom was a disastrous first command outside the engineering decks of the _Neema_.

And of course, they had to show up and save her, just like they had on the Citadel. She was supposed to be dead and he looked like he had had a recent close brush with death himself. Their third companion wasn't Wrex, but naturally it was a krogan. Shepard always managed to have on in her crew and Garrus got along famously with them.

After being rescued, there was the whirlwind of finding out Shepard's story and then trying to come to terms with her working for or with Cerberus. He seemed okay with it, and there was a krogan and salarian there as well, but Tali didn't have to like it. Hell, Tali was even willing to put up with the AI on the ship. Still, Tali stayed to indulge her school girl crush she had on a certain rugged turian, not that he ever found out about it.

She kept things as normal as they could between the two dextrose on Shepard's crew. Didn't stop Dr. Mordin from once offering to assist in administrating immune-boosters or Shepard from making remarks about the meal time "dates" Tali had with Garrus, or Joker from setting up a MASSIVE betting pool… Truthfully, Tali was pretty sure that Garrus knew about her crush on him since day one way back on the Citadel. As silly as it sounds, him acting normally towards her got her through a lot of her days on the _Normandy_ SR1 and SR2, even if her feelings were unrequited.

In fact it made things easier both times she headed home to the Flotilla. If he ever asked her to stay with him Tali would happily never see the Flotilla again. Thankfully, he didn't because the situation in which that particular request might have been asked never existed in the first place.

That doesn't mean though that Tali wasn't tempted to ask him to join her on the Flotilla. And Tali almost did as well, except then Shepard had to take in a geth. From there, the worst ten days of Tali's life played out. A standoff with the geth Legion in which Shepard broke up. Tali had gone to Garrus to vent only to find him on the machine's side. Tali demanding that Shepard drop her off at the Flotilla and barely speaking to anyone for the week's time it took the _Normandy_ to take Tali back home. The rude reception and shock of being branded a traitor. The horror of finding out what her father was doing. The pain at finding his body. The shame of taking comfort in Shepard's hug and later defense in front of the Admiralty Board. The further shame in Shepard still offering Tali a place on the _Normandy_, which Tali took. She owed Shepard too much not to do something for her.

And out of that whole wreck came the one tiny beacon of hope. Garrus joined Tali in the port viewing lounge and just held her as she grieved her father. He came to her, as oppose to the other way around. It would be an isolated event, but that didn't stop Tali from treasuring that bittersweet moment of time. It was then that Tali knew that her crush on Garrus was far more than a simple crush and she was going to do something about it.

Plan A had been to ask him to join her on the Flotilla. With his skill set, there was no way Garrus wouldn't have been a welcome addition to any ship in the Flotilla, even if the taking in of outsiders was extremely unusual. Unfortunately Tali had to work up the courage to ask him and by the time she had, her timing was horrible.

Tali had gone to the forward gun battery that was Garrus' quarters/office/hangout and walked in on Garrus looking at an enlarged picture he had recently received. The title was "Vakarian Family Portrait" and showed five turians all smartly dressed smiling at the camera. An older turian was seated and over his shoulders stood a younger male and young female. At the old turian's feet were two children.

Tali's mind immediately put two and two together and assumed that this was why Garrus never did anything towards her that could be considered overly romantic. Yes there was some banter and what could be considered light flirting now and again, but who didn't do that in the middle of a fire fight?

Thankfully, before Tali could explode due to jealousy and say something she would regret, Garrus noticed her and explained the picture that his sister had sent him, pointing out his father, brother-in-law, sister, and nephew and niece. He also explained that it had been a matrilineal marriage, which was why his nephew and niece had the Vakarian last name.

Apart from the shock of Garrus sharing such personal information, as it turns out not even Cerberus had known Garrus had family part from his father, Garrus shared that this was his reason for fighting the Reapers. To give his nephew and niece the chance to grow up in peace even though he had never met them.

Unable to bring herself to ask her selfish request Tali retreated and would eventually form Plan B, or the dumbest thing ever in retrospect. Step one was to gather up as much false confidence as she could. This would only take until the night before the _Normandy _went through the Omega-4 Relay.

Step two was to swipe some immune-boosters from the medbay and self administer. Step three was to rewatch way too many vids on turians that Tali may or may not already have saved and with her. Step four was to throw out anything she may have learned from said vids and just wing it.

All things considered, it didn't turn out that bad. Tali just showed up at the forward guns, turned out the lights and went after him. It was hardly the stuff of movies where everything had to be perfect and glorious. She merely advanced, gave him a chance to stop her, and when he didn't the deed was done right there on the deck plating. No mushy words or comfy pillows, just barely enough clothing was removed as needed and that was that. Two or three times, Tali can't quite remember the exact number.

The next morning Tali woke up on top of Garrus and just got up and left to get ready for the insanity that normally occurred whenever she followed Shepard into battle. Of course, having a "breach" in her suit all night meant she was running a temperature and as the day wore on it only got worse.

By the time she was crawling through that cursed heated pipe she was slightly delirious and was slower then she should have been. Her sore hips, knees, and pretty much entire lower body didn't help matters any either and Tali's less then top notch state would get her slightly toasted. This slowed her down even more, which lead directly to Garrus taking a shot to the gut while he was providing covering fire when the two fire teams met up. If Tali had been moving faster, he wouldn't have stood there exposed so long.

As the mission wore on, Tali became more and more handicapped. By the time Shepard was making some silly speech, Tali was running completely on autopilot. During the holding of the line Tali can only remember bits and pieces as her fever would overcome her and she'd slip into unconsciousness. Tali remembers waking up upside down at some point and then waking up a few days later in the medbay on the _Normandy_. Assuming that heaven didn't look like the _Normandy_ medbay, Tali assumed they had succeed doing the impossible.

Of course the victory was short lived, since Shepard, one of the none wounded crew managed to do a solo mission that only destroyed a mass relay and an entire batarian system with it. From there none Alliance crew were dropped off at the Citadel and that is how Tali ended up back with the Flotilla and sitting at mind numbingly important but boring Board meetings.

**A/N: **So any thoughts on Tali's home coming/reminiscing on the past/ the doubling of the words in the entire story so far? Next up is Garrus and he will fill in some blanks and move time forward a little.


	4. Chapter 4

**Imperator**

Palaven

For the first time in years, Garrus was able to get into a routine that didn't involve killing someone on a daily basis. That doesn't mean he didn't get to shoot any, in fact he part took in all the marksmanship drills he ordered. As good as he was at sharpshooting, even the great Garrus Vakarian needed to keep his skills honed.

Apart from being on the rifle range, Garrus spent a great deal of time either in his tiny corner office or out in the field personally overseeing operations that were technically outside his realm of influence. However, no one wanted to tell a Consul that he couldn't do something that one day help protect the Heirarchy. Even if they didn't believe in the threat that the Consul was desperately trying to prepare defenses against.

Within the militant meritocracy of the Turian Heirarchy were no less than 27 levels of citizenship. Individuals could move up and down the ladder but ones place in the ladder wasn't as important as how well one did their job. Still, the rank system helped guide social life and would produce family dynasties whom were known for being exceptionally good at what they did. The family rank would used as the starting place of anyone born from that family, but from there they could still move up or down, resulting in branch families.

The Vakarian family was known for being cops. Being in the military police was a given, and after they had served their time, Vakarian members either stayed in the military or moved into the civilian sector a la C-Sec after the Turians joined the Council. Through centuries of hard work and steadfast service, the Vakarians were a very well respected family sitting in what could be considered the upper class. The family wealth might not be at that level compared to what other species associated with upper class, but the social respect was just as great.

Which is why Garrus' brother in law agreed to a matrilineal marriage, since Remus' family and personal citizenship rank were lower then Solana's of 9. Garrus on the other hand had recently been vaulted up the rank structure to 3, placing him a tiny circle of men who potentially had unlimited power if certain scenarios arose.

After Garrus had spoken with his father, Garrus the Elder used his connections to speak with the Primarch. Next thing Garrus knew, he had Solana fussing over him to make sure he was in his finest dress. Dressed in an old senior detective dress uniform from C-Sec, Garrus was given an audience with the Primarch. Laying out exactly what he had told his father, Garrus was able to convince that the Reapers were enough of a threat that Palaven should be ready against them. Should they ever show up, of course.

A week later, in a very formal ceremony Garrus was granted the rank of Consul of Reapers and given a task force to prepare the turian people against this threat. Granted, most of this was political posturing mixed with a little bit of just in case. No Primarch wanted to be the one that didn't prepare his people against a threat, real or imagined.

The Consuls had an interesting job and place in turian society. In peace time they were to train and plan and prepare the Hierarchy against potential threats. However, not all threats are equal and thus not all Consuls were equal, though they technically should be. Each Consul was in charge of a particular threat and their title reflected that threat. There was even a Consul of Volus and a Consul of Elcor, both of whom shared a small office space with Garrus at the low end of the Consul totem pole. At the other end were the Consuls of Asari and Humans, the two most powerful of the Consuls.

While most of the Consuls listened to the Consuls "above" them, all the Consuls had to listen to the Proconsul, one General Adrien Victus.

While holding no real power in peace, the power of the Consuls was second only to that of the Primarch and Proconsul in war, who often just deferred to the Consul. When the Turian Hierarchy went to war, the Consul of the species they were fighting was the expert on said species and in charge of the entire war effort. To denote that Consul from the others in time of war that Consul was addressed as Imperator or "Commander of armies."

Knowing what was coming and trying to stretch his authority and task force of 100 men as far as it would go, Garrus did what he could to prepare for the coming invasion. The stress was only made manageable by the fact that Garrus had a home life to help take the edge off.

Sometimes it was getting a few drinks with Remus after work, other times it was as simple playing games with Leto and Camilla. Wednesday nights were baking nights in which Solana commanded the entire house hold with military precision in the tasks of baking that week's supply of snacks. Thursdays were family nights for Solana's brood which left Garrus alone with his father most Thursdays.

The first few times were awkward and mostly spent in silence but slowly and eventually the two gingerly worked out a few issues. Most were just too old and locked in position for either Garrus to budge on or just too painful to bring up at all.

Fridays through Monday's Garrus was often gone on field exercises, which the men all loved to hate, since their weekends were shifted to being whenever they made it home Monday and Tuesday.

For Garrus that meant a shower then sleep until Leto would get home from school. Leto would jump on him waking him up and demanding to hear all about uncle Garrus' camping trip. This would normally be followed up with what was now a ritualistic request to join uncle Garrus on one such trip, then the gentle refusal, and the short stint of pouting. It was getting harder and harder to refuse Leto these days especially since Leto had somehow convinced Camilla that it would be fun to go camping. When Camilla pouted all bets were usually off for either of her parents or her grandfather. Garrus knew it wouldn't be long before he too was completely wrapped around her finger.

Garrus would usually fix the pouting by presenting the children with something interesting he had found while away. Sometimes it was odd colored rocks or some leaves from trees they had never seen or even bugs. The bugs thing had happened only once though as they had escaped the tiny box Garrus had caged them in and Solana had not been pleased with the small stink bugs.

Tuesdays were lazy days which Garrus hated. He had too much time to think in the quiet mornings when the kids were at school. Father normally had an old men's brunch and book club and Solana did her routine of keeping the house in order.

Sometimes Garrus helped just to have something to do if he wasn't too tired. Other days he would just lie on his bed and look over pictures of the past.

There was a group picture of his Omega crew he rarely looked at. Partly because they were all dead, partly because it was a dark chapter of his own life. If Shepard and her motley crew hadn't shown up when they had, well Garrus most definitely would not be alive today. The few people on the _Normandy_ that knew him well enough knew what he was doing, but no one ever spoke about it, and for that Garrus was always grateful. Even so, the Omega team picture only came out to give Camilla and Leto faces to put to names whenever Garrus told really cleaned up versions of his time on Omega.

Another photo with mixed feelings attached to it was one of the SR1's _Normandy_'s ground teams in the cargo hold. Kaiden, Wrex, Garrus, Shepard, Tali, Liara and Ashley all in a line with the Mako in the background. Spirits how Garrus hated that machine. Every time he got it into respectable working order Jane would take it out for a spin ie completely destroy it.

Apart from the Mako bring back haunting memories of Jane's driving skills, that picture reminded Garrus of something he kept putting off. He wasn't oblivious to the school girl crush that Tali had instantly place upon him, he just always assumed it was tied to the hero worship that Jane got after the pair of them had saved Tali from the Shadow Brokers thugs.

Yes they spent a lot of time together at meals and working on the Mako, and rarely did he lend a hand in engineering but Tali wasn't even considered an adult in her own culture, which would have only increased the creepy old guy vibe, if people knew how old Garrus was.

Then there are all the memories of the adventure itself and the craziness they went through and the friendships made. Garrus very much treasured the friendship he had made with everyone, especially Wrex and Garrus liked to think the crusty old krogan enjoyed his company. After all, Wrex and Garrus exchanged emails about once a month. Mostly comparing kill counts and most spectacular finishes.

After the Mako picture came the Hammerhead picture. Taken after the Omega picture, Garrus and anyone else who ever rode in anything Jane piloted, always grew to hate said vehicles. Partly for all the work Garrus had to put in to keep it running on top of the calibrations he was doing on the gun deck, and partly because you couldn't eat before going on a ride with Jane or else you were going to lose your lunch.

Similar to the Mako picture, everyone was lined up next to or on top of the Hammerhead. Jacob, Miranda and Jane on either side of Jack who had them in a headlock, Zaeed, Grunt and Garrus all looking gruff and bored, with Legion making up the end. Seated in front of the standing line were Thane, Samara, and Mordin. On top of the Hammerhead were Kasumi and Tali and each of their battle drones positioned so it looked like the Hammerhead had eyes. Garrus was sure that Tali and Kasumi were quite pleased of themselves judging from the grin on Kasumi's face in the photo.

After the Hammerhead came one of Garrus and Tali sitting at a workbench fixing something together. Then one of the pair eating dinner, and another one of them looking very dismayed at the state that Jane had returned the Hammerhead in. Those pictures were courtesy of Jane who rather enjoyed taking pictures. Even when the situation was less than ideal, which is how Garrus got a picture of him and Tali hunkered down behind a fallen concrete slab on Haestrom while geth were shooting at them. Garrus may or may not be trying to shield Tali with his body as the beginnings of an explosion shows up on the right side of the picture.

Lastly came one picture of Tali standing in the doorway of the forward gun battery wringing her hands. This was actually taken by Garrus as a spur of the moment thing, seeing as the next morning they were going through the Omega-4 Relay. Tali's spur of the moment idea was much more X rated and while Garrus may have a few infrared grainy shots of that, those aren't the kind of pictures you reminisce about on quiet mornings.

Not that Garrus didn't sometimes think about that night and the following few days. Up until that night, Garrus had been doing his best to keep Tali at bay. After all she was much younger and there was probably some quarian boy she had back in the Flotilla. After two years Garrus was pretty sure any interest Tali had in him had moved past hero worship/crush to unfinished business/get it out of her system. At least he had hoped it was purely physical on her end because it made it a lot easier on him to clamp down the emotional attachment he was fostering towards the quarian.

Naturally, Tali's little stunt complicated things. She got sick of course, and in the end Garrus got wounded because of it. Eventually he ended up carrying her back to the ship. Between her being out due to illness and him from injuries sustained in the Collector Base, they never got to talk about that night. Garrus never got to ask if Tali had gotten him out of her system or did that night mean something more to her.

As much as Garrus tried to lie to himself that night meant something to him. Had he been able Garrus would have probably marched straight to Rannoch and started building Tali a house on it, much to all the geth's mutual confusion. Alas, Jane went all crazy on them and blew up a Mass Relay and everyone went their separate ways.

Apart from the pictures, Garrus did have a recording of that night. Tali had taken his visor and activated an audio recording file on it. Of course without his visor Garrus couldn't understand a word that Tali said that evening, but he never listened to the recording. It would either make him the happiest person in the galaxy or just break his heart completely. Either way, Garrus could never find the will to listen in on the translation.

On rare occasions Solana would stop by his room. She'd ask about which ever picture he would be looking at and they would talk about it. Of late it was the one of Tali standing in the doorway of the gun deck.

Garrus knew he had a problem when Solana started dropping hints that he should invite Tali over for dinner one night. Of course that was impossible, as Tali was on the other side of the galaxy in the Migrant Fleet, but the idea was a nice one. Inviting a special someone over to meet the family. It was such a normal idea Garrus often didn't know what to think about it but that didn't stop him from playing out the fantasy in his head.

However, that normal life fantasy, and the normal life in the real world could not last forever. Eventually, six months after Shepard blew up that Mass Relay, Garrus got the call he knew would come. It was 1:29 am when he received the message "They are here, Imperator."

A/N: WOOO! 5 pages! I decided that since the turians are based on Rome, why not base a little of their rank structure on Rome as well. While we never find out for sure where Garrus fits in the whole system, we do know that he is regularly advising the Primarch in ME3 and that his advice has some serious weight to it. Also, we see generals saluting Garrus, which is always fun. Poor Shepard never gets promoted but that doesn't mean other characters can't move up the ladder! Granted I took the actual system and moved stuff around to fit my story of course. The historian in me had to die a little so that the fanfiction writer could live.

Huge thanks to iron aegis, Shika1929, and especially to Dragon Kin Roan for the reviews.


	5. Chapter 5

**Tactical Withdrawal**

**1:27 am Palaven time: Contact**

"Sir the DEWS on the edge of the system have tripped."

"Do we have an ID yet?"

"Not yet, sir. It's unlike anything I've ever seen before. The signatures are massive."

The entire room was silent, each waiting for an identification to come in. That would give them a course of action. A minute would pass.

"Sir, we have a positive ID. Reapers."

"Get on the line and send out warnings."

As the room burst into a clamor of voices each radioing a different rapid response unit, the ensign swiftly marched to his desk and pulled out a red manual. In moments he found the number he need and the pass code. In short order the ensign was on the line with the Consul of Reapers.

"They are here, Imperator."

No other transmission made it out of the listening post.

**1:35 am Palaven time**

Garrus had awoken the house hold. They had prepared for this thankfully. Emergency bags were grabbed and the house left behind in a matter of minutes. Garrus Sr, Solana and the kids would head to the nearest space port and wait to leave planet as soon as the fleets could secure an evacuation corridor. Remus was off to his engineering unit to report in.

Garrus began to make his way downtown to the Consuls' offices.

**1:46 am Palaven time**

There were already Reapers in the city. Garrus had shot several making his way downtown. Fortunately for the turians, their cities were natural fortresses and its people heavily armed at all times, even the civilians.

Even so, the waves of Reaper troops were increasing. The city would fall, it was only a matter of time.

**1:55 am Palaven time**

Garrus had made it to the Consul buildings and linked up with the Primarch, Proconsul, and his surviving Consuls. They were to be evacuated to Menae immediately as the capital was no longer safe and couldn't be held. It would have to be retaken at a later date.

**3:14 am Palaven time**

The leadership set about accessing the situation and trying to get a grip on what they had on their hands. The casualty reports were almost nonstop and it was making it hard to ascertain what units were still operational in the field.

And if the military casualties were terrible, the civilians ones would be unspeakable.

Still, all of that was pushed to the back of all their minds as they came up with a plan to at least stem the tide.

**Day 1**

The casualties were as horrific as everyone knew they would be. Reapers had landed on Palaven. Over three million were dead in a day and a good portion of Palaven could be seen burning from the moon Menae. The retaking of the capital wasn't even an option any more, the entirety of it glowed an angry red and orange as fire consumed it.

Command looked to Garrus on a way to stop the Reapers, now that they had shown up. The only real advice he would offer was concentrated firepower. It worked for dealing with the Reapers on the grounds. Husks fell easily, and those Cannibals that were once Batarians, they took a little bit more to take down.

This approach worked to an extent in space. Reapers were being shot out of the sky but at a much slower rate then turian ships. The home guard fleet was being decimated trying to keep control of the system while various other fleets were being pulled in from the outlying colonies.

If they could hold out long enough, reinforcements would be here and they had a shot at not being completely annihilated. Until then… Garrus had to order the portion of the fleet guarding the evacuation corridor to stop guarding it. It was just getting torn to shreds and Garrus knew they needed those ships to help control the space around Menae, not evacuate civilians.

**Day 2**

Another five million were dead. The ground war on Palaven and Menae had opened up with new fervor as husked turians, Mauraders started to appear as leader units of the Reaper ground forces. Giant armored monstrosities with turian heads on massive bodies also started to appear. Already turians were fighting their dead. The only solace that Garrus took was that they went down easily enough with a well placed shot between the eyes.

Garrus had embedded himself in General Victus' troops. Taking "suggestions" from Victus helped ease the stress. Strangely enough, so did being in the meat grinder with the men. Garrus had never been good at leading large units of men. A squad or so Garrus could manage; anything larger and Garrus knew he was out of his element.

Being a one man army Garrus could do easily. He was a wrecking ball that Victus placed in hot spots and places that were in trouble. As time wore on, those would only become more numerous.

**Day 8**

The fighting still raged on. Reinforcements were pouring in from outlying systems but the Reapers were also being reinforced as well. Even though it had been little over a week, Garrus felt like he had been fighting for years. Word from Palaven was bad, but then Garrus mused it was bad everywhere. Reports had come in that Earth had been invaded as well and just as hard as Palaven. Garrus took a small measure of comfort that the Reapers felt it necessary to hit both planets at once. If nothing else it would piss off a red headed human he knew, and if Garrus knew his friend, then Lt. Commander Jane Shepard would be on the warpath. If anyone could come up with a way to stop the Reapers it was her.

So when Jane showed up with Liara in tow, Garrus was far from surprised.

"I'm on it Shepard. We'll find you the primarch." Garrus said walking up to Shepard and her group.

"Vakarian sir, I didn't see you arrive." General Corinthus greeted Garrus and snapped to attention.

"At ease General." Garrus acknowledged the general and let him get back to work. One thing Garrus always felt unease about was all the generals saluting him. Garrus didn't feel like he should be saluted but the rank he carried had to be respected. So Garrus shrugged off the salutes as salutes to the rank, not the man carrying it.

"I was wondering when you would show up Jane." Garrus smiled, or at least came as close to a smile as turians could get.

"It's good to see you too Garrus. I thought you would be fighting down on Palaven." Shepard greeted Garrus.

"If we lose this moon then we lose Palaven. I'm the closest thing we have to a Reaper expert so I'm…" Garrus shifted a little uneasily. "…advising."

If Shepard and Jane noticed him shifting, neither said anything. Instead Shepard introduced the large human who was with her.

"James this is Garrus Vakarian. He was the XO for all the aliens when we were fighting the Collectors. Best damn sniper in the galaxy and one hell of a soldier. Garrus, lt. James Vega." Shepard said standing aside as Vega came forward to shake Garrus' hand.

"Lieutenant. It's good to see you too Liara." Garrus gave Liara a nod which she returned with a smile. The two had always enjoyed a good relationship and respected each other's work. During the last six months Garrus had tapped Liara for any Shadow Broker resources she could spare near or on Palaven to help prepare for the coming invasion.

"It's good to see you in one piece Garrus." While she had not been present, through her information network knew that Garrus had a habit of being shot up. Missile to the face, gunship rounds, another severe wound while assaulting the Collector Base; Garrus tended to embrace the turian maxim of "Victory at any cost" more then he himself might realize.

"General Corinthus filled me in on the situation. We know who we're after." Garrus said getting back to the business at hand. A comm. signal from the _Normandy _ came in breaking up the conversation and that interruption was interrupted by a loud roar in the distance.

"Looks like we'll get caught up after we find the Primarch. To the wall!" Garrus shouted as he stepped towards the battlement.

-o-o-o-o-

After Liara ran off to get back to the _Normandy_, defending the wall from the husk rush was simple enough with Jane on the mounted gun emplacement. The brute was taken down with easy by Garrus as by now he knew just where to shoot to kill it in one shot.

Garrus found that Vega was a solid soldier who seemed to enjoy his banter in battle. For this short stint at least, Garrus would have someone to bounce banter off of. Jane was never the combat bantering type.

Between the high of battle, the low was getting Shepard up to speed on the fight on Menae and Palaven. While Garrus knew it had to be hard for Shepard to leave Earth in its time of need, at least she didn't have to stand in sight of her home world and watch it burn.

"From the sounds of things, General Victus sounds like the man we need." Shepard said out of the blue.

Garrus gave Shepard a look and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, Liara has been filling me in on the general's dossier." Shepard said tapping her ear.

"She's really taken to her second career then." Garrus noted. He wondered idly if Vega knew that Liara was the Shadow Broker but that was for another time. Up ahead there were the sounds of fighting and the roar of brutes.

The team double timed it to the encampment but arrived only in time to help clean up. Garrus would stop only long enough to crack off a shot with his sniper rifle while Vega did a controlled trot with bursts from his assault rifle. Shepard forewent gun entirely and was tossing husks around with her biotics. Once the dust died down the real work began.

"General Victus? I'm Commander Shepard of the _Normandy_." Shepard said walking up to the turian that Garrus had pointed out to her during the fight.

"Ah commander. I'm familiar with your name. Can't wait find out what bring you all the way out here." The general shifted his attention. "Vakarian, where did you go?"

"Heavy Reaper unit on the right flank. I believe your exact words were 'get that thing the hell off of my men.'" Garrus replied. It had been a pair of brutes that had been tearing up the right flank.

"Appreciate it." Victus answered before Shepard stepped in to get to business. As Garrus expected, Victus was nonplused about being Primarch and dead set against leaving Menae and Palaven behind.

"Primarch, we need you to chair a summit to get the Council off of is lazy ass to actually do something about the Reapers. The turian councilor won't do a thing until you are safe, and the Council will listen to whatever you decide since the turians are the military might of the Council." Shepard laid out for the Primarch.

"Vakarian, walk with me." Victus turned and walked several yards from the humans to get out of ear shot.

"Sir?" Garrus asked. It felt oddly comforting being able to address someone higher up then him again. He had had little contact with the previous Primarch and Victus had set the tone early of calling him sir.

"Palaven needs us to be using our strengths not our weaknesses to win."

"Sir?"

"Vakarian, you suck at large unit tactics. I'm terrible at playing nice with others around a conference table. However, you exude a personal strength that gets people to listen to you on a personal level. I'm needed here to lead our forces. You need to get out there and bring me every scrap of support you can get. Once we shove the Reapers off of Palaven, tell that Commander that the turian fleet will do formation flying for her if she wants but Palaven needs to be liberated before we move to Earth."

Garrus chuckled at the Primarch's first remark before settling in to listen to the rest of his little speech. "Sir, I agree with you but you are our head of government and other heads will want to deal with you. Hells, according to Shepard, even our councilor won't do anything unless it comes from you."

"Then you grab that whelp by mandibles and twist them until he gives you the location of where his grandmother hides her cookies. _You_ are the Consul of the Reapers and the Proconsul now. _You_ are the head of government in the event of a war and I think we are very much in the middle of one right now.

Listen, Garrus. No one wants to leave Palaven but we both know you are the better candidate. As Consul, it's your job to lead us in the fight against your given foe. It doesn't have to be from the front lines. It can be in knowledge, like that weak spot you figured out on those brutes. Or it can be in gathering reinforcements. We're going to need the humans or the krogans, and since the humans have their hands full…" Primarch Victus trailed off letting his words sink in.

"I'm friends with the krogan battlemaster who has the most sway on Tuchanka. Maybe I can get him to help." Garrus offered as he took a forlorn look up Palaven.

"That's why you have to go Vakarian." Victus added before turning to take a glance of his own. A moment of silence passed between the two before they turned and clasped forearms.

"Palaven victor."

"Palaven victor." Garrus said in parting before walking back towards Shepard and Vega.

"Well?" Shepard asked eagerly.

"The Primarch isn't leaving. I am." Garrus said putting a hand up to stall an outburst from the redhead. "You said you didn't care who you got as long as you got turian resources right? Well, I'm that guy."

A/N: Yay another chapter down. I was going to keep going but this is a perfect place to transition without forcing it. After all, transitions are hard. If you want to see good transitions and a lovely long one shot head over to Intermittence by Inspector Panderp. If you enjoy waiting for authors of good fics taking their sweet time updating great stories, then also check out Such a strong word by Dragon Kin Roan. And since I'm throwing out recommendations, The End by Precept is worth the depression to read it.

Thanks to all that reviewed.

Googleflubs: You have to remind me about which circles exactly. Circle 1 and 2 aren't ringing any bells at all.

B: Thanks for the review. I can guarantee that my ending will be much better then what we got. I just have to get the story to that point. Could be a while as I'm going to derp the canon time line so hard to make things nicer. Also get us Tali and Garrus on the same boat faster. Who can say no to G/T?

DKR: Because I don't want to type out your full name again. I am that lazy. I'm glad my attempts to add my own depth to the characters isn't destroying them completely. Right now we are so Garrus heavy because it's easier for me to write males and ME3 intros him first. Having to play the game again just to get details for the story is torture. But anything is worth seeing G/T moments in game!


	6. Chapter 6

**Old friends, new faces**

"Commander, you might want to get down to the AI core. Engineer Adams is heading there as well." Joker called out as soon as the airlock opened making Shepard snort and Garrus chuckle. Trust Joker to be worried about EDI though Garrus was surprised that Liara hadn't taken care of the issue. After all, wasn't that why she had run off back to the _Normandy_?

"Good to see you Joker. We'll catch up later." Garrus said over his shoulder as he followed Shepard stomping towards the elevator. The lt. commander never got a break. "You know where to find me." Joker called after them.

Garrus hopped in the elevator along with Vega and Shepard, though only Shepard got out with him on deck 3. Vega must be set up somewhere lower down in the ship Garrus mused but now was not the time for that. Nor was it time to comment on how the elevators had really improved in speed. Shepard didn't seem to be in the mood for small talk.

Still in full gear, Shepard and Garrus made their way to the AI core where Engineer Adams was waiting with a crewman with a fire extinguisher. Garrus dumped his duffle as Adams opened the door and watched as Shepard went striding into the smoky AI core. A few minutes later Shepard came out muttering under her breath something about unshackled AIs, damned Shadow Brokers, and wanting a shower. Garrus wasn't entirely sure how they were all linked together but all thoughts of figuring that mystery left his mind when a well sculpted silver female stepped out of the AI core.

"EDI?" Garrus asked.

EDI stopped a few feet from him and turned to face him. "Consul Vakarian. I was unaware you had come on board."

"How did you get a body? Joker must have gotten it for you, but I heard Shepard say something about this body shooting at the crew the last time they saw it." In the background Adams waved at Garrus as he and the crewman slipped out of the AI core and left the sick bay. Garrus nodded back. Adams was decent enough and it was nice to know some of the old crew was back onboard. Garrus idly wondered just how much of the old crew was back, but shoved the thought to the back of his mind. EDI was talking to him right now, and in person.

"Jeff did not acquire this body for me, Consul. This unit was on Mars and had stolen some prothean data. After lt. Vega crashed his shuttle into its intended get away shuttle, this unit injured ltc Williams before Shepard disabled it. I managed to reactivate and gain control of the unit."

"I see."

"If you will excuse me, I wish to go to the bridge and show this unit to Jeff." EDI made her exit leaving Garrus feeling slightly numb. He picked up his duffle bag and turned around spotting Dr. Chakwas. He greeted the old doctor and they exchanged the usual pleasantries. Garrus cut it short saying he needed to get set up in the forward gun battery and Chakawas dismissed him with a quip about needing dextro medical supplies now.

The gun battery had been expanded some. A weapons bench had been added on the right and a computer terminal on the left. Garrus wasn't sure what the original intention was, but he was going to use it as his new work station. Having a real computer would make going over all the reports from Palaven much easier. The extended walkways were nice and Garrus turned one corner into his sleeping area. He'd have to ask for a cot soon.

As Garrus set about methodically emptying his duffle and getting familiar with the Alliance style computer, his mind went back to what EDI had said. Specifically the words she was using. "I, me, wish." Garrus knew that EDI had been unshackled by Joker just before they had hit the Omega-4 Relay. He just didn't expect her to be that… Self aware? No Garrus knew she was self aware long ago. Developed didn't sound right either nor did advanced. Sentient was technically correct but sounded a little cold so Garrus settled on alive. He hadn't expected her to be that alive. Clearly EDI had wants and was taking steps to fulfill those wants.

And Garrus found that after the initial shock of "seeing" EDI in a "body" Garrus found he was okay with it. Spirits, he had been already thinking of EDI as a she. In fact, EDI having a body kind of made it easier to swallow Garrus guessed. Sure he had ribbed Joker about his seemingly unhealthy relationship with the ship's AI but how was that any different then Zaeed's love affair with his Jessie? If anything Joker had a better deal going since EDI could actually reply when he talked to her. Now that EDI had a body, it seemed a little less... unconventional.

There was nothing wrong with being in a relationship with an AI and if sort of made sense for Joker to be in a relationship like that given his disability. Garrus had only one objection however. EDI needed to put on some clothes.

After getting settled in Garrus took a shower and decided to wander the ship. He went back to chat a little longer with Dr. Chakwas who reminded him not to go head butting missiles. Next he wandered to the XO room that had belonged to Miranda and found that Liara had moved her Shadow Broker operation into it. She seemed busy at the moment so Garrus just stayed long enough to tell Liara they should catch up at some point. Garrus now knew though what Shepard had been muttering about. Liara had run straight to her room and was making sure EDI's little adventure wasn't messing with any of her toys. Garrus wondered if he could steal her mattress. If things hadn't changed then there was no real reason Liara would need one if Shepard also had one…

Next Garrus wandered down to engineering to say hello to Adams. The two really didn't know each other except through Shepard and Tali but it was still the polite thing to do. From there Garrus found Emily Wong had taken up residence in one of the cargo holds and was an embedded reporter on the _Normandy_. After explaining what she was doing, she managed to weasel an interview with Garrus at some later date. Garrus wasn't too worried about it. He knew Ms. Wong from his C-Sec days and she had always given a balanced story.

From deck 4 it was down to deck 5. As expected the shuttle bay was big and had shuttles in it. Garrus recognized the face of the shuttle pilot and introduced himself. Steve Cortez seemed like an okay guy. Then there was James Vega whose idea of a friendly chat involved fists. Garrus was pretty sure that Vega would get along great with Wrex and Grunt. In fairness, Garrus took off his upper armor.

"You sure you want to do that Scar? I don't want Lola chewing me out for breaking one of her old friends in half." Vega asked eying the chest plate.

"It'd be too unfair to you Vega. Beside, us turians are made of tougher stuff then you humans." Garrus quipped back as he stepped into quick one two combo that caught Vega by surprise.

Vega reeled for a moment and shook his head before coming at Garrus with his own set of quick jabs followed by a left hook to the body. Garrus blocked the jabs but caught the hook with his ribs causing him to flinch.

"So what's with the nickname? Have trouble remembering names?" Garrus feinted left and landed a right hook to Vega's ribs, returning the favor.

"Yeah. Great with faces, terrible at placing the names. Nicknames are easier." Vega threw a few quick jabs, which Garrus blocked. Garrus counter attacked with a few swings of his own, which Vega deflected easily. After all the point wasn't to really beat each other up, it was to get to know one another.

"So how do you know Shepard?"

"Lola? I was her guard when she was under house arrest. I hear you were part of Lola's suicide crew that made it back from the Omega-4 Relay?"

"Oh I've known Shepard from before that. I helped her hunt down the rogue Spectre Saren and the Reaper Sovereign. That was three years ago now."

"No wonder she's happy to have you on board. You must be as crazy as she is."

"That's no way to be talking about your commander Vega."

Garrus turned to glance over his shoulder to see Shepard just as Vega took a swing that connected with his right mandible. Immediately afterwards both men let out a string of swearing. Turian mandibles were mostly bone and sharp but it didn't stop them from being sensitive. While Vega cradled his now bleeding hand and Garrus his sore face, Shepard just laughed.

"Serves you right Garrus for letting your guard down and serves you right Vega for punching Garrus in the face. And I'm surprised at you Garrus. Boxing has never been your strong suit." Shepard said with a light note to her voice. She seemed to be in a much better mood then before.

"Well, I'm pretty sure it's against all etiquette to challenge someone you just met to a wrestling match. Boxing seems more appropriate for a first fight." Garrus said as he redonned his armor.

"What are you doing down here Lola?" Vega asked.

"Can't I wander around as I please? It is my ship."

"It's an old habit of hers. Shepard likes to wander the ship and talk to people. Even if they are in the middle of something important. Like calibrations." Garrus quipped earning himself a playful shove from Shepard.

"Actually, I came down here to find you Garrus. Liara and I wanted you input before I sent out a message to the asari and salarians for this war summit." Shepard said as she started to herd Garrus towards the elevator. She paused and then went back to grab Vega as well.

Shepard personally dragged Vega to Dr. Chakwas to get his hand looked at. Garrus would have laughed at Vega's misfortune but Dr. Chakwas gave him an ice pack for his face, which he sheepishly took. How she could tell that his mandible was bruised was beyond him but perhaps that is what made her such a good doctor. Shepard however, had no problem getting a good laugh at Vega and his own expense.

Ice pack on face, Garrus and Shepard left Vega and Dr. Chakwas and made the short trek over to Liara's room. The first time Garrus noticed was that the bed in the back of the room was no longer tidy. Yeah, Liara could keep her mattress now.

"We wanted to show you this Garrus. It's a schematic for some kind of weapon we found on Mars." Liara supplied as she handed him a padd.

"We're not entirely sure what it is but its design seems to be millions of years old. Liara seems to think that maybe each cycle that got advanced enough add a little to the design as they attempted to build it." Shepard added moving to stand next to Liara. Garrus noted the distance between them, or lack of distance.

During the Omega run, things had been frosty between them. Last Garrus knew they had started to thaw right before Shepard got put under house arrest. If the bed in back was any indication, things had most definitely thawed. However that wasn't important now. The schematic was.

"I'm going to ask the alliance we are creating to support the building of this Crucible. The protheans thought it was worth building and so must have countless other races. I wanted to know if I could count on your support for it." Shepard continued.

"So you want me to throw the turian support behind the building of some super weapon that you have no idea what it does while fighting a war of annihilation against impossible odds?"

"Just like old times." Liara surprisingly commented.

"I can't do that Shepard." Garrus held up a talon to stall Shepard and Liara. "I can't help you build something you don't what it will do because _I_ will tell you what it does. It's a giant Thanix cannon."

"WHAT?" Both Shepard and Liara exclaimed.

"See, turn it sideways." Garrus handed the schematic over to Liara and watched as both hunched over it.

"Here is the prefire chamber, and the main rail line." As Garrus went on Liara became more and more purple while Shepard became more and more red. At some point Garrus was sure he was turning a shade of blue as well as he was getting embarrassed for embarrassing them.

And it made sense that they missed it really. Archeologists like Liara see things a certain way and try to make the world fit into that way of thinking. Same goes with Shepard, though Garrus suspected she was relying on Liara to provide the answers to anything prothean related. So if a bunch of archeologists on Mars think they are looking as some strange doom weapon they aren't going to be thinking they are seeing something simpler. Sometimes there isn't a forest; sometimes it's just a tree.

"I mean the design is a little weird from what the turian military is using but that could be explained by its size. The reason our dreadnoughts don't go over 2.5 kilometers is because after that point it becomes close to impossible to keep the main gun from ripping itself apart after being shot. Whatever all this extra stuff is must somehow allow to be built 10 kilometers long." Garrus said pointing out several doodads he was unfamiliar with.

"If it is just a giant cannon then at least it will be easier to sell to the alliance." Shepard managed to get out with a weak smile.

"This is better than that. We know it has been fired before and it works." Liara started getting Shepard's and Garrus' attention. "The Leviathan of Dis was a Reaper and we know it was taken out by a single shot from a large mass driver. Given the age of the Leviathan of Dis and the designs of the Crucible it stands to reason they are connected somehow."

"Now that is something I can give the turian support to Shepard. However we are going to need more than just the Council races. We are going to need the krogan, quarians, batarians, hells even the geth if we are going to win this war. So I'd advise you to hold off on the summit until we can gather more people to it. It's better to have one big meeting then to have several smaller ones."

Shepard glanced over at Liara who nodded in agreement with Garrus. "The council races shouldn't be a problem nor will the krogan. At least to get them to the summit. I'm sure Wrex would love the excuse to swap war stories with you Garrus. The batarians are a dead end though. They were almost completely wiped out in the initial assault. And I'm not sure about the geth and quarians."

"Last turian intelligence report I got said that the quarian Flotilla had gathered and was moving towards Rannoch. We might have to move fast and you might have to use some of that Shepard charm to keep the quarians from doing something stupid." Garrus said earning raised eyebrows from both women in the room.

"You get turian intelligence reports and generals salute you? You've been busy while I was locked away." Shepard said.

"It's very interesting to me that the turian Consul of Reapers gets reports on quarian fleet movements." Liara added.

"Consul? Where does that rank in the meritocracy?" Shepard wondered out loud.

Garrus had a sneaking suspicion that business was done with now and that he had fallen into some kind of horrible trap. As Shepard and Liara moved to flank him and gently but firmly herd him towards the back of Liara's room Garrus knew he was in a trap. Odds were good he would not enjoy this and it would not be over quickly. Thankfully, there was a chair he could sit in while Liara and Jane took the bed.

"Why don't you ask Liara Jane? I'm pretty sure she knows." Garrus tried to deflect.

"This is more fun." Jane giggled. Just like that the tough commander Shepard had transformed into a giggling school girl. If the universe only knew who they put their faith in to save them…

Garrus looked plaintively to Liara who just shook her head and joined Jane in a light bout of giggles. Yup, galactic hero and Shadow Broker, both giggling. If Garrus hadn't seen it before and wasn't good friends with them, he was sure he would be so devastated by the change in character. Fortunately, knowing them for three years was plenty of time to know that Jane had a real girly side she kept under wraps while Liara was just Liara. If anything Jane was a terrible influence on her.

"Technically I'm in charge of the war effort right now, which technically makes me more powerful then the Primarch. With Primarch Victus becoming Primarch from Proconsul, I'm the new Proconsul as well. How to explain this? There's a bunch of Consuls, each in charge of a specific"

"Three Garrus. The answer is you were in the third ring from the top of the leadership." Liara mercifully cut Garrus off before he could go into a long winded rant. "Well, number two now."

"And you couldn't have just said that from the get go?"

"I didn't think you were going to draw it out in a weakly veiled attempt to avoid answering my far more important question." Liara continued.

"Yes, do answer Liara's question Garrus. We're just _dying_ to know what _possible_ tactical reason the movement of the quarian fleet would be relevant to the Reapers." Jane over dramatized.

Garrus opened his mouth, then shut it, then opened it again and closed it once more. "You know what? I'm a grown man and I can just get up and leave." Garrus attempted to do just that before being gently but firmly biotically nudged back into his chair.

"Aww come on Garrus. You were completely merciless with me and from what I hear Tali wasn't much nicer to Liara with all the grilling and teasing." Shepard whined.

"How is she these days Garrus?" Liara coaxed.

Garrus sighed and allowed himself to sink into his chair. "I honestly don't know. We haven't exactly kept in touch and I've been busy."

"Chicken." Jane pouted. She had been hoping for some juicy gossip that for once didn't revolve around her.

"Jane." Liara admonished her partner.

"What? They would make such a cute couple. She rounds out his rough edges and he keeps her from being too carefree and childish."

"I wish that quality of mine was working right now." Garrus muttered earning a peel of laughter from the women on the bed. Garrus was officially surrounded by children.

"Really Garrus, you haven't been writing each other? No vid calls or anything?" Liara tried again once the laughing died down.

No there had been no communication between them. A few half started letters but he never sent them. Well, there was that one night and that most definitely goes under the "anything" category.

"Come on Garrus. You hesitated which means something has to have happened." Jane verbally pounced on him. After a moment of silence she kept going, "Oh come on. You know just about everything there is about Liara and me, probably down to the minute I popped her cherry the night before Ilos."

Garrus buried his head in his hands as he felt his face burn. He was sure if he looked up Liara would have turned that lovely shade of purple he had seen earlier. He was also sure that Jane would not be blushing as she sounded rather proud at the moment.

"Jane, there is a large difference from inferring the knowledge and having you wave it in my face. And shouldn't you be going to Tali about this sort of stuff? Isn't that was girl talk consists of?" Garrus tried one last attempt to deflect. Because that was really private information and he wasn't even sure himself what that night meant if anything.

"You mean like me and Liara having a tussle five minutes before I went and got you?"

Garrus looked up. Yup, Liara had flushed completely purple and looked like she was trying to hide behind Jane who seemed intent on breaking Garrus. Out of mercy for Liara, or to have himself, he wasn't sure Garrus finally broke.

"Fine, we might have had a one night stand before we hit the Omega-4 Relay."

"AH HA!" Jane said triumphantly. "I knew something was up. She was off her game a little and had that fever all day. I remember someone here heroically carrying her back to the ship and being a dumbass who got himself shot." Jane put a finger to her lips in thought though Garrus could see the corners of her mouth twitching upwards in a wicked smile. "And she was walking just a little funny just like Liara on Ilos."

Garrus just got up and left and mercifully wasn't forced back into his chair. Great peels of Jane's laughing did follow him out though.

**A/N:**

Greetings all! I hope that was a fun chapter for everyone. Just a little over 8 pages of fun. So who wants a wrestling match between Garrus and Vega? Joker will be the bookie and Shepard will announce.

Next chapter will have Tali in it! I know I know, I've been Garrus centric but I think you see what my poor attempts are female characters turn into. I will try to do better.

B: Does my take on the Crucible make a little more sense than what we have? This is what I thought the moment they introduced the damned thing and I kept waiting and waiting and then Starchild happened. If there is one good thing I will say about the ME3 ending is that it will prove you have a soul, only to break it.

GoogleFloobs: I know I PMed you but I might as well put it here too for other who might have the same question. The Proconsul is in tier 2 and the Primarch is in tier 1 but I did this Romanesque thing where in times of war the Consuls (tier 3) had complete control of everything. So technically the Primarch is the ranking turian but since Garrus is Consul of (insert enemy the Hierarchy is fighting now) he is in charge of everything for now. I suppose the Primarch can override Garrus, and Garrus can override the Primarch but since they are both working towards Palaven not being blown up I don't see it happening.

OTHFiction: Best single sentence review ever. And yes, I am fully aware this is a reboot of a reboot. My sister hit me upside the heat when I told her the title.


	7. Chapter 7

**For the Home world**

About the same time the Reapers were invading multiple systems across the galaxy, a Reaper was defending the Dholen star system. Specifically it was defending the geth on and around Rannoch, the old quarian home world from the quarian Flotilla. The initial strike by the quarians had driven the geth right into the Reapers open arms and now the quarians were pinned down in their own home system.

Being the Geth expert along with Admiral Xen, Tali was able to figure out where the Reaper signal was coming from. The issue was that the dreadnaught broadcasting the signal was probably as heavily armed and armored as a Reaper itself. Since Tali knew the geth didn't have windows, the plan was to sneak a shuttle close to the dreadnaught and space walk to it in order to get inside and disable the signal without being detected. This hinged on the shuttle not being shot down which is why it would be mixed in with a fighter screen. Odds of success weren't exactly promising but fortunately before Tali could finish getting a volunteer suicide squad gathered, the _Normandy_ showed up and requested a meeting with the Admiralty Board.

As the admirals gathered to board the _Normandy_, Admiral Raan motioned to Tali to come to her.

"Stop wringing your hands child." Raan softly chastised. "Confidence Tali, you are an admiral and this is an official meeting. We have to be confident in front of visitors. You can visit with your friends afterward dear."

Tali only nodded her head and was thankful that aunty Raan only thought she was nervous about seeing her friends again. And truthfully, Tali was a bit nervous but in a good way. It's always nice to see old friends. However, Tali was also nervous about facing Garrus. They hadn't gotten the chance to really talk after the Omega-4 Relay between being in sick bay and her purposefully avoiding him before they were dropped off at the Citadel.

The Admiralty Board went aboard the _Normandy_ and were escorted to what Tali assumed was a war room of some kind. She did make sure to give Joker a quick wave and he smiled at her in return. There looked to be someone else in the cockpit with Joker but Tali really didn't get a good look. She'd have to ask Joker later.

Seeing Shepard again was nice. Shepard had the good grace to politely point out that the plan Tali had come up with was unnecessary now that the _Normandy _was here with its stealth drive. Still, things could have gone better. Shepard chastised the Admiralty Board over the decision to go to war with the geth, but at least this time she did it without getting the crowd to shame the admirals. It did feel very odd being on the receiving end of Shepard's polite scolding.

The worst part is that Tali had to stand there and stay quiet while the senior brass talked things out. At the end of it Tali managed to give Shepard a quick wave but they didn't get to talk until they were in the elevator on the way down to the shuttle hanger.

As soon as the doors closed Tali was instantly lifted off her feet in a fierce bear hug.

"Shepard!" Tali squealed. She tried to return the hug but it proved difficult with her arms pinned to her side.

"Oh it so good to see you again!" Shepard said with a huge grin plastered on her face as she put Tali back onto her feet. "So _Admiral_, eh?" Shepard gave Tali a playful nudge with her elbow.

Tali rubbed her arm nervously. "It's mostly an honorary title mixed with political maneuvering. The Admiralty Board can't do much of anything without having a full five sitting members and since you saved my family's name… Well, I am a geth expert and we are fighting them now…"

"So I noticed. I had thought the admirals said they wouldn't be doing exactly what they are doing. I was hoping that I could get some help from the Flotilla, not putting out a war."

"Once this is over, the Flotilla will be indebted to you Shepard. The Admiralty Board will have to give you the support you came looking for. I just hope it's in time." Tali said solemnly.

Shepard just nodded but didn't say anything. Tali was wondering what she could say to break the silence when the elevator doors opened revealing the shuttle bay.

"I remember the elevators being a lot slower." Tali said following Shepard out.

"You saying you miss that slow thing?" Shepard said with a smirk before calling out, "Vega, get suited up!"

"Oh no, I prefer the faster elevators. It cuts down on the amount of awkward chit chat and silence we have to endure. What other upgrades have been done to the _Normandy_?" Tali asked to hide her disappointment. For some reason Tali assumed that Garrus would come with them on this crazy mission to get onto the geth dreadnought. Every time she had accompanied Shepard, Garrus had always been there right alongside the commander. But then Garrus had gone to Palaven to actually fight the Reapers.

Tali noticed Shepard giving her an odd look but before the commander could say anything the elevator doors opened again and a voice called out, "Take a load off Vega, I'll take this one."

Tali instantly snapped out of the slight slouch she had slipped into. She knew that voice.

"Good of you to join us _Proconsul_. I'm sure you know the geth specialist for this mission, _Admiral _Zorah."

Garrus wasn't quite sure what Shepard was trying to do in pointing out his new title to Tali, or Tali's new rank to him, but something about it rubbed him the wrong way. One would think that after two suicide missions together that everyone would be on a first name basis now. And it's not like there was any really important around. Still, if Shepard was trying to rattle him a little with Tali's presence onboard she would have to do a lot better.

"Why yes Miss Shepard, I do know Tali quite well."

There are advantages to being in an environmental suit at all times. One it kept people from seeing you slowly turn pink with getting all flustered at the excitement of Garrus being on the _Normandy_ and coming on the mission. It also hid the huge smile Tali had. It was only through sheer will power that she wasn't on the ground laughing, the look on Shepard's face was priceless.

Garrus knew he was going to pay for what he had done but it had been worth it to see Shepard's face fault like that. As a career officer, Shepard hated being called "Miss" and almost no one did. Still, Garrus technically out ranked Shepard by quite a bit, so technically he should be able to. Technically.

Once the three of them were suited up getting aboard the Geth Dreadnought was mostly simple. Tali had to go ahead to open a different route for the rest of the team but that didn't take long. Nor did it take long for things to settle into how they had been when the three of them used to go on missions together. They were swift and tactical. And always found the time to banter a little.

"Now that you're on board Tali, maybe they will get some better dextro food. In the mean time, I have some turian chocolate that you are more than welcome to when we get back." Garrus said during one of the lulls as they made their way through the ship.

"Thank you Garrus. I think I will take you up on that offer sometime." Tali replied.

"You have turian chocolate?" Shepard asked.

"Yeah. Dr. Michelle gave them to me. Said she saw them and thought of me." Garrus supplied offhandedly.

"Better watch yourself Tali." Shepard ribbed.

If they weren't on mission Tali would have taken the time there to process the information more thoroughly. As it was Tali couldn't suppress the quick squeak of surprise as Shepard's poke but thankfully the geth showed up and the conversation died there.

In an attempt to set things to a more normal pace, Tali struck up the conversation again by asking how Shepard and Garrus were doing. Of course, what was intended as normal evolved.

"And how have you been doing Garrus?"

"Can't complain. Wish we weren't doing as much room clearing."

"Oh, I meant um. Before we all went our separate ways…"

"Garrus, Tali is referring to your physical intimacy during the fight against the Collectors."

"Thank you EDI!" Shepard quipped. Watching Garrus and Tali both being embarrassed was priceless. Little did the commander know that both of her friends were seriously contemplating "recalibrating" EDI to thinking she was a can opener.

Fortunately the rest of the mission went without too much incident. If finding and unhooking Legion counted as not a big incident. The harrowing escape from the dreadnought in the geth fighercraft was something else entirely. If Garrus wasn't so busy being livid he would have enjoyed being squashed into a tight space with two lovely ladies much more than he did.

And Garrus wasn't the only one mad at Admiral Gerrel. As the trio came storming into the CiC they could hear the voices of people arguing. The opening of the doors revealed Admiral Raan champion their cause already, threatening to charge Gerrel with treason. Gerrel rebuked Raan and then had the audacity to turn to Shepard in an appeal for help.

Before Shepard could get a word out, Garrus tore off his helmet and slammed into the gut of Gerrel, making him double over and fall to the floor.

"GARRUS!" Shepard exclaimed over the collection of gasps that went around the room. All eyes were on the turian and downed quarian.

Garrus just ignored Shepard and stared down hard at Gerrel. He kept his voice low, steady and very, very cold. "You should be stripped of your command Gerrel. We did that boarding action to give you the chance to withdraw and you knowingly changed the plan. You knowingly opened fire on a disabled vessel that had one of your own admirals on board. And all you managed to do was chip the paint on it. Worse than that, you knowingly fire on a lt. commander of the human Alliance. Who had offered to help you no less. What the hell do you think would have happened if you had killed Shepard? I'm not sure either but I do know what would have happened if you had gotten me killed. After the fight with the Reapers is over the Hierarchy would have taken its full mobilized fleet and ground Ranoch into dust to avenge the death of their Proconsul. Next time, make sure you know who it is you are attempting to murder. And next time make sure you actually murder them because if you ever try anything that stupid again I will personally beat you to death with your own helmet."

With that Garrus gave Gerrel one last kick to the ribs for good measure. "I'm going to go check in on Legion." Garrus said as he walked pass Shepard on his way out.

-o-o-o-o-o-

After Garrus left the room and the doors closed there was nothing but silence for a while. Eventually, Gerrel made it back to his feet and Shepard broke the silence.

"Get off my ship," is all Shepard said to him. Turning to Tali Shepard added, "I'll still help you the best I can Tali, but just make sure that one is under very tight control."

Tali could only nodded. She didn't have the power to do anything really and as Admiral of the Heavy Fleet, Gerrel was technically the top admiral. Hopefully, if they just kept him out of the loop or at least away from Shepard and Garrus, things would be okay.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on tactical planning. There was a bomber wing that needed to be taken out and a Reaper as well. Legion came to help with the planning and so did Liara at once point, though Tali would later find out it was to drag Jane way for dinner and then some alone time.

Once that pair left, everyone went their own was to get dinner and retire for the evening. Tali made her way to the forward gun deck and found her favorite turian hard at work calibrating. To his credit, he did stop when he heard the door open and seemed to know it was her who had showed up.

Without turning around Garrus started to speak, "Look Tali, it's nothing against you or."

"Shhh. What happens out there is out there. In here it's just us." Tali said walking up to Garrus and hugging him from behind. She really hadn't thought about what she was going to say to him or do but as soon as the words were past her lips Tali knew them to be true. Outside they had titles and responsibilities to live up to but inside the walls of the gun deck it was just the two of them. Here she was just a woman and he was just a man, and her hands had a mind of their own as they slowly started to undo Garrus' belt.

"Can we at least make it to the cot?" is all Garrus said. Naturally, they didn't.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

In the morning neither of them said anything after they finally separated from each other's embrace. Garrus wordlessly offered Tali some chocolate and she took it, putting it in a pouch for later. The pair sat in the comfortable quiet, each trying to sort out their thoughts about the previous night.

They didn't get too far into their contemplating before a light knocking interrupted them. "If you two are decent, you might want breakfast before we hit planet side." Jane's teasing voice called through the door.

Garrus sighed. "Sorry, but Jane and Liara cornered me and made me fess up to the night before the Omega-4 relay. This is apparently payback for all the stuff we did to her and Liara, though I'm sure there is more to come."

"Probably. I was a bit merciless teasing Liara." Tali laughed softly before getting to her feet. She looked at Garrus, shot a quick glance at the door and back at Garrus. Fortunately Garrus understood her dilemma.

"Go on ahead. I think, hope at least, Jane had enough tact left in her not to broadcast that you were in here. I'll be out in a few minutes."

Tali nodded and left the forward gun battery, her mind going a million kilometers an hour. What she really needed was some time alone to talk with Garrus about whatever they had going on. The battery was no good as it seemed she had no impulse control there. Unfortunately there really wasn't anywhere else on the ship they had any privacy.

Shoving her personal life to the back of her head, Tali put on her admiral's face, though no one could see it. Little did she know she would get her alone time with Garrus sooner then she thought.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Garrus took the few minutes he had given Tali to collect himself and stretch his stiff back. Next time, if there was a next time, they really had to make it to the cot. As enjoyable as the activity was, he was way too old for repeat performances on deck plating. Again, assuming there was going to be a repeat performance. Tali's words from last night gave him some hope, but they really needed to find some place quiet, private and not here, to have an actual talk. The gun battery was their little refuge and Tali seemed to only have one thing on her mind when she was there. And Garrus didn't have the will power to stop her either.

Of course there wasn't any real time to think over personal issues. Half way down to the objective they got pulled to extract Admiral Koris. Shepard manned the mounted guns while Garrus kept pegging those that Shepard missed. From there it was a drop at the fighter base. Legion facilitated their entrance and managed to convince Shepard that being directly linked to the geth was the best option for disabling the fighters.

That left Garrus and Tali finally alone to talk.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Two hours ago if someone had told Tali she would feel awkward and terrible in Garrus' presence she would have laughed. Now, though, she felt exactly like that. The detour to pick up Admiral Koris was a long range affair and had provided Tali with plenty of time to think. And the more she did think the more and more depressed she became.

First off, she was an admiral now. It's not like she could just leave the fleet, or Rannoch, once the quarians retook the home world. There would be too much to do in just rebuilding, even if the Reapers were ravaging other systems. There would be housing issues, food production, probably a baby boom since there would be room…

Likewise, Garrus was Proconsul, whatever that was exactly. Given Garrus' speech from the other day, it meant he was important to the turian Hierarchy. It wasn't like he could just pack up and leave either, even if he was inclined to do so.

On top of that he had strong personal ties to Palaven. His nephew and niece, his sister and brother-in-law, and his father, a home and a respected job. How was Tali supposed to compete with that? She couldn't even given him a solid answer as to where he would sleep if he were to even visit Rannoch.

By the time Shepard was stepping into that geth pod, Tali had made up her mind. She would have to break her own heart but it would be better for them in the long run. They could have their time on Rannoch, that was her small concession to herself. But after that…

"Do you ever feel awkward? Being the only turian on the ship?" Tali couldn't stand the silence any longer.

Garrus looked up at Tali who was on the other side of small room they were in. It was an odd question but Garrus answered it nonetheless.

"I don't know. Should I?"

"I just mean… not having anyone else like you around." Tali folded her arms as she clarified. She was getting nervous and pinning her own hands would stop her from ringing them.

Garrus raised an eyebrow. What was Tali getting at? Was she trying to ask him something deeper or was she really just striking up a conversation. Probably just striking up a conversation, Garrus decided. After all, their quasi relationship was really new. Still it almost sounded like Tali was testing his reaction for something. Maybe as a lead in to moving to Rannoch when it was all over? Not likely, but Garrus went with a deflection just to play it safe.

"It doesn't seem to bother Liara."

"But she can eat their food." Tali replied.

"I don't know how. Have you seen some of the stuff they call food? Jane showed me this thing called grits. I'd rather go through the Omega-4 relay again then have to even look at that stuff again."

Tali smiled a little as she watched Garrus exaggerate being ill, fake gagging and finally slumping over a railing.

"Okay, toughest mission?"

Garrus righted himself and looked at Tali once more. Maybe she wasn't trying anything, maybe she just wanted to chat while Shepard was inside the geth matrix.

"Horizon." Garrus answered easily. Encountering the Collectors face to face for the first time had been harrowing.

"No fair! I hadn't joined up with you yet." Tali whined.

"Fine. The dead Reaper then."

"Really? The husks just ran up to us."

"Have you ever noticed that I carry a _sniper rifle_? You're the one that likes things at close range."

"And you prefer to keep things at a distance."

"Exactly." As soon as the word slipped from his lips Garrus was sure he had missed something in Tali's last statement. "Wait, what?"

"Creepiest thing we fought?" Tali just went plowing ahead.

"The Thorian. But wait, what did you mean?"

"I didn't mean anything." Tali lied. Garrus didn't need to know that she knew that he had purposefully built and maintained the distance between them over the last few years until very recently. And that part of her resented him for doing that. "I'm going with the rachni."

"The queen?" Garrus guessed. If Tali didn't want to talk about it, he wasn't going to push it.

"No, the little ones. They look like spiders and they shuttle right towards you."

Garrus chuckled. "I thought you liked it when things got up close and personal."

"I guess it depends on who it is." Tali couldn't help but tease.

Garrus smiled. "It does help to have something to come back to.

Tali stiffened slightly. Here was her chance and she knew she had to take it or else she would lose her nerve. In as steady and serious voice as she could muster Tali replied, "What do you mean 'to come back to'? This is just a fling Vakarian. I'm using you for your body."

**A/N: **I know it's been a little while. Between seeing my parents for the first time in two years, relatives popping out of the wood work, volunteer work, and taking two summer classes, I have managed to finally complete a chapter.


	8. Chapter 8

**A Proper Response**

As much as everyone wanted to stay together on board the Normandy, it just wasn't possible. Garrus was the Proconsul of the Heirarchy, which put him in charge of the galaxy's single largest fighting force. And Tali was an Admiral of the quarian Admiralty Board. The junior most admiral to be sure but one all the same. Her excuse of staying onboard the Normandy to help smooth things over with the Proconsul could only last so long. And while things were going swimmingly between the geth and quarians on Rannoch, the Admiralty Board had expressed a desire for Tali to return to Rannoch.

Unable to put it off any longer Tali had to return to the home world. A part of her was happy to do so. After all, the goal of reclaiming the home world had been indoctrinated into the quarians as soon as they started schooling. And, guiltily, Rannoch was quiet and peaceful. It wasn't touched by the war that was raging across the galaxy. It was actually being rebuilt and repopulated by the quarians and the geth.

Which is why Tali was being called back. She knew Legion and got along with him and so she was going to be tasked with working with him. Legion was more or less the defacto voice for the geth. While they still were all interconnected, their new found sentience had made the geth a rather curious race. It could be rather trying being patient to explain things to a geth. But at least the geth seemed more than happy to help rebuild.

And there was a lot of work to be done. The quarians had a world to rebuild from practically the ground up. Farms, industry, housing all had to be built. And Tali was looking forward to having a house of her own built. She even had a nice little spot all picked out.

It was a tucked away from the central city about a half hour on foot in some foothills. A small brook ran by and it had a nice flat slab of ground just waiting to be built on. It was perfect and Tali had said so to Garrus in a letter she had sent him. As soon as Tali could she would get a small prefab structure put there to claim it. Once things got a little better Tali would then have a structure actually built. She was sure she could bluster her way to having it built now but there were other families that had greater need and truth be told she had no idea what sort of design she wanted. Building further down the line would give her the time to think things over. Still Tali took the time to wander out to her secluded spot once a week to sit and dream.

So it came as a large surprise when Tali went walking up to her patch of land only to see it swarming with heavy machinery and geth and a several half built structures. After finding a geth prime to talk to Tali found out that Legion had whipped the geth as a whole into a frenzy and certain groupings had been handed separate tasks that were all building towards a common goal. While clearly not all the geth had been recruited for this goal, as the quarians would have noticed something was happening, small groups had been tasked to build certain things on a very tight time table. To know more Tali would have to speak with Legion herself, as the geth prime didn't think it was its place to say more.

Tali did try to find Legion over the next few days in her free time. That particular geth had made himself hard to find though he somehow managed to get his assignments done. Tali just chalked it up to him not having to sleep. In the mean time she did a little asking around and some snooping to see where extra groups of geth had suddenly gotten very industrious.

The school had gotten a boost in completion as had some land set aside for a park. And a road was being built out to Tali's former quiet place and even a bridge over the little brook. A quick look at records showed that Legion had claimed the land of the house and 600 acres on the other side of the brook. No one thought to stop him of course. Everything was still so chaotic as the quarians were shifting a communal nomadic ship based society to a planet based one that had to share the planet with another species.

While the geth had only been helpful once the shooting stopped, no one wanted to risk upsetting the geth. So when Legion staked and claimed the land Tali had only informally claimed, the Admiralty Board thought it was better to deal with the upset admiral then an upset geth.

And things got stranger from there. Legion has requisitioned, and received an assortment of foodstuffs. Not a lot mind you, but any food was an odd thing for a geth to ask for. They didn't even have mouths so they couldn't be doing some bizarre eating experiment. The request for seed was also unbelievably strange as no request for farming equipment came with it. Presumably the geth must be using equipment from before the geth uprising that had probably been rebuilt. What really took the cake though was the sudden spike in extranet usage aimed at childcare and education, mental trauma treatment and nurturing young biotics. Throw in turian architecture and quarian farming techniques and that was a truly odd mix.

It was on the third day that Tali finally found the droid she was looking for. Legion had made a crude command center out of an old abandoned building on the outskirts of the city. Around him were several other geth and they were all engrossed with various piles of data slates and computer screens. In the back of the room was a large display that was counting down to something. There was 32 hours and change left when Tali tracked Legion down.

All the geth paused briefly to acknowledge Tali's entrance but otherwise ignored the quarian which was fine with Tali. She stomped straight up to Legion and wished she could grab and twist something on him that would both hurt and get his attention. Instead she settled for just getting his attention.

"LEGION!"

"Yes Tali-creator?" The geth in question did not take his eye off of the screen he was looking at.

"What is going on? Why are some of the geth, at your direction I might add, suddenly building everywhere?"

"It is only in a few key areas deemed necessary. The quarians benefit as well from the completion of the primary school and park."

"And the house you built over the land **I** wanted to build on?"

"The manor was built sufficiently large to house Tali-creator in addition to Garrus-friend and his subunits."

"Wait. Garrus-friend? What happened to Vakarian-Garrus? And subunits?"

"I am sorry, Tali-creator. Garrus-friend specifically said not to discuss the subunits with you as part of the favor. However, I could use your help with decoration of the manor."

Garrus. Oh course. Nothing else in the galaxy would motivate Legion to such heights of activity and stupidity like Garrus. It was sort of touching in a way that Legion valued his relationship with Garrus so much. It was also a bit twisted that Legion took it so far. If nothing else it only proved that Legion was very much a male personality. No woman would go about all this work in such a clumsy manner.

"You want me to help you decorate the house you built over the land I wanted to build my own house?"

"As I said Tali-creator, the manor has sufficient space to house Tali-creator and others."

"Like the subunits."

"Yes Tali-creator."

"That you won't tell me about."

"That is correct Tali-creator."

"Is the clock back there counting down to something?"

"It is counting down to the subunits arrival."

"Correct again Tali-creator. You understand the need for urgency in the construction. There was no time to consult with Tali-creator. "

"No time? Legion you've been going about all this business for the last 3 days at least."

"Four days and 16 hours. Garrus-friend did not give much forewarning."

"Right. Tell you what. I'll help you but only because you are trying to do some favor to Garrus, which you have yet to say what it is. And because you are going to come and get me when you go pick up these subunits. That way you will have kept your word about not discussing them and I can find out what they are."

When a turian frigate pulled into Rannoch space claiming to be on a diplomatic mission to the geth the quarians were less then pleased but didn't oppose the frigate. The shuttle that touched down was met by Tali and Legion, and host of geth. If Tali had to guess some of them at least were the ones working on various projects that Legion had tasked them with and they were here to see what all the rush was about.

When out of the shuttle came Garrus carrying a child and holding the hand of another child it made sense. Or some sense at least. Okay, it didn't make much sense at all but there was Garrus, holding two children. Tali would just deal with that for now and untangle it all later.


	9. Chapter 9

**We need to talk**

Words no one ever wants to have to say but Garrus really did need to talk to Tali. He only had a few hours on Rannoch before he had to leave to head back to Palaven. And even then he was pushing it. Just like he was pushing the limits of his status to get his nephew and niece here.

Well, technically son and daughter now. With no living relatives left turian law stated they were automatically adopted by him. And Garrus was too busy being on the front lines to raise two kids. Sure he spent some time with them before the Reapers showed up but back then he was just fun Uncle Garrus who told the stories and spoiled them. He never had to worry about things like discipline or feeding them or clothing them.

So Garrus was sort of running from the problem. The turian felt horribly guilty about it but dumping the kids on Legion was honestly the best thing he could think of. Legion, for whatever reason practically worshipped Garrus, and while that made Garrus uneasy, it also sort of made Legion the perfect godfather. Even if Legion went over the top. A latifundia complete with manor and 600 acres of fields did qualify as over the top. Garrus was thinking more of a smaller 2 bedroom apartment, not a multi building compound build to exacting turian standards.

Legion would do whatever he could to help and more importantly Rannoch was just about as far from Palaven as you could get. And Garrus could pay. Being a rank 2 citizen of the Hierarchy suddenly meant that Garrus had money. In theory anyway, the current Hierarchy economic plan was 'we'll let the volus sort it all out later, just keep writing checks to win this damned war.'

But there were more important things to do. Like talk to Tali. He hadn't expected her to meet his shuttle, as he never told her he was coming to Rannoch. Maybe she'd be mad at him. That might make this easier actually.

After Garrus put the kids down to sleep as it was 2 am ship time, he turned to Tali and asked if there was some place they could talk. Tali led Garrus to what he assumed was the master bed room judging from the size though it was very sparsely furnished.

"Something on your mind Vakarian?" Tali asked.

Garrus let out a long breathe of air. "There's never an easy way to do this. Tali, a lot has changed in the last ten days or so. Most of it completely outside of our control but you have to live with what the universe deals you right? And I've had a long week to think this over and I think it's the best for both of us if you maybe started seeing other people."

Garrus waited a beat before pressing on. While he couldn't see Tali's facial expression nor her skin turning a lighter shade of purple, he did hear he gasp and move to grab onto the bed post for support.

"It's not you Tali, honestly it's not. It's just. Spirits this sounds so unfair, but it's because of the children. I'm their only living relative and by turian law I'm automatically their caregiver now. I need a wife. Someone who knows how to handle kids because I sure as hell don't. I owe them a mother at the very least. And there are plenty of war widows out there already"

"So just like that, we're over? You don't love me anymore?" Tali sank down onto the bed. She honestly couldn't believe that Garrus had flown all the way across the galaxy to break up with her. The rest of what he was saying hadn't quite sunk in yet.

"That's just the thing Tali, I do still love you. I love you enough not to tie you down. I remember what it was like being your age. Being tied down with two kids was not on my to do list when I was in my mid twenties." Garrus wasn't quite sure if he was trying to convince her or himself but either way this had to be done. Tali really didn't deserve to have her entire world put on tilt just because his had been.

"And so just because you didn't want something at my age you think you know what I want?!" Tali snapped. What Garrus had said was starting to sink in and the more Tali thought about the madder she got.

"Tali, I"

"No you had your chance to say your part now I get to say mine you bosh'tet!" Tali practically leapt off the bed and jabbed him in the chest until Garrus had been back up against the bed. One more jabbed from Tali forced the turian to sit on the bed and look up at Tali as she stood between his legs with her hands on her hips.

"You foolish noble bird brain of a man. You think I can't handle a few kids because I'm young? And so what? You suddenly think you need to marry a widow? Just like that? Someone you don't even know because you are too busy having fun shooting Reapers on Palaven. Well guess what buddy, I'll learn how to handle those kids just like you will."

"Tali, it's not just that they are kids, they are severely traumatized and Camilla is most likely biotic as well. And they're 6, they're old enough to start schooling, and there's their martial training to do as well. A turian widow would know all that and how to teach the kids. And it's not like arranged marriages are uncommon for turians. The Vakarians have had arranged marriages for generations."

Tali just leaned down until she was nearly touching Garrus's face with her visor and just glared at him.

"I. Will. Learn."

Tali bumped her forehead against his with each word. "And as I recall, you have said on a number of occasions you are a bad turian and worse Vakarian. So no arranged marriage for you. You aren't breaking up with me because you're marrying me. I'm going to help raise those children and we are going to be a family. End. Of. Discussion."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

"You're hot when you're angry." Garrus reached up and put his hands on Tali's hips, drawing her closer so he could press his forehead against hers. This time the gesture was one of affection instead of anger.

"You're still an idiot." Tali muttered as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I know. Think you can forgive a foolish old man?"

"I think I could be persuaded."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Garrus didn't exactly have a lot of time to spare on Rannoch and as Tali was in quite a no nonsense mood so she quite physically grabbed Legion, had him print off the necessary paperwork and witness and officiate the Vakarian Zorah wedding. A big ceremony with friends could be done down the road. However, Tali was going to cement her hold on Garrus no matter what and Garrus was more than happy with the arrangement.

It didn't really sink in until an hour later when Garrus was leaving Rannoch after the universe's shortest honeymoon that he had a mated-wife. What made it sink in you ask? Jane's voice shrieking over his omni-tool, "YOU GOT MARRIED?!"


	10. Chapter 10

**That sinking feeling**

"YOU GOT MARRIED?!"

"Um, sort of?" Tali sheepishly said as she tried to hold backa giggle at Liara's bewildered expression.

"What do you mean 'sort of'? I'm looking at the marriage notification right now with my own two eyes. How? What?" Liara, normally much calmer and collected especially after she entered the information brokering world, was flabbergasted. Tali and her had talked at length about marriage when it came to their respective partners and had come to the conclusion it wasn't for them. At least at the time. Less than ideal role models of their parents' married lives was the main motivating factor.

"It was important to him." Tali started with before going on to explain Garrus' rather foolish speech. When she was done Tali could dimly hear Garrus's voice starting to protest before Jane and Liara spat back at him that he was in fact an idiot.

"You could have at least invited us. Or told us." Liara said a little dejected.

"It was very spur of the moment. We'll have something once things quite down a little and are a little more settled. Big party I promise. Now I have to go, I think I hear the kids waking up."

Tali headed to what was now the children's bed room only to find Legion already there with about 5 other geth.

"Greetings Vakarian subunits. I am Legion. What are your designations?" Legion was squatting next to the low bed so he was closer to their eye level. As poorly thought out as this whole thing was, Garrus had had the foresight to show the children pictures of Legion and tell them some stories about the geth as Garrus explained that Legion was a good guy and would take care of them. It's the only think that stopped the kids from bolting at the sight and sound of a geth leaning over them.

Instead the children merely stared wide eyed at the geth and all in the room turned their attention towards Tali as she made her entrance.

"Hey kids are you hungry? How about we all go for a walk and get something to eat?" Tali said in as pleasant a tone as she could. There wasn't any food in the entire compound so walking back to the city for food was the only option. And maybe, she could try to get to know the children a little on the way.

There was a thick silence that was only punctured by the gentle whirs of mechanical parts moving as 6 heads swiveled back towards the turian younglings.

At first there was no reply as the younger pair just studied Tali. Tali was wondered if she just shouldn't go get some food and bring it back when the female finally spoke.

"You're the pretty lady from the pictures that makes Uncle Garrus coo." The girl then turned to address Legion, looking him square in the eye stalk. "I'm Camilla. This is my brother Leto." Camilla pointed at her brother.

"Legion." Camilla reaffirmed as she pointed to him. "Tali."

Tali just nodded as the younger girl pointed to her.

"That is correct Vakarian-subunit-Camilla. That is Tali-creator."

"No just Camille. Not all that other stuff you said."

"Vakarian-subunit." Legion repeated.

"Nope. Camille."

"Vakarian"

"Caaaaaa"

"subunit."

"miillllllllllaaaaa."

Tali could only roll her eyes and did her best not to laugh. Instead she started to shepherd out the geth in an attempt to get the group moving. Much to her delight, it tactic worked and got the kids off the bed and out of the house.

Unfortunately that was the high point of the afternoon and her rudimentary mothering skills. The walk was a disaster. Being a half hour from town at an adult walking speed meant it would have taken much longer with children. Fortunately the children didn't last more than 10 minutes before their energies gave out and they had to be carried. Leto by Legion, and Camilla by Tali. The girl proved to be a lot lighter then she looked and looking her over again Tali couldn't help but wonder if that was normal. Both Camilla and Leto seemed to be thin but maybe turians didn't fill out until later in life.

Dinner was a somber experience. Apart from the stares and whispers at Admiral Zorah not only having a troop of geth but also two turian children that seemingly appeared from nowhere, there was the meal itself. Camilla barely ate anything and her brother even less. When asked why, Camilla just looked at her brother for a moment before looking back at Tali.

"He's being stubborn. He wants to make sure there is food enough for tomorrow and the day after. He'll eat more then."

It took a lot of coaxing but Tali did manage to get the kids to eat a little more. Tali had to buy an extra meal to bring home but never mind. She even let Leto hang on to the plastic container that held their leftovers on the trip back to the compound. This time they didn't even bother with having the children walk.

Once at home, Tali finally heard Leto make a sound. It was a growl as Tali had reached to take the food container from him to put in the refrigerator. A touch from Camilla was enough to make him very reluctantly left go and both children very intently watched as Tali put the box of food on the lower shelf of the fridge.

And then the kids were put back to bed. Their sense of time was all off due to having been on a ship for at least a week. But it was early evening on Rannoch now. With some luck they might sleep through most of the night.

For her part Tali got a copy of whatever files Garrus had given Legion and poured over them as she sat on the edge of her bed. There wasn't much other furnishing but that was something to be remedied at a later time. For now, Tali had to catch up on as much as she could on what were now legally her two children.

The files Garrus had sent were grim. When Garrus had ordered the civilian evacuation corridor closed off one of the transports that had been cut off was the one carrying his family. The transport crashed killing most of the passengers save for a few initial survivors. Later, when krogan boots helped make a counter assault on Palaven possible, Camilla and Leto were the only two survivors pulled from the wreckage.

A detailed investigation wasn't possible but quick notes from the rescuing team did note that just about all of the bodies small chunks of flesh missing. The ship was a short range civilian transport meant for short journeys with in the greater Trebia system. Even with all those that died on impact, the ship didn't have nearly enough food for those that did survive to hold out the month it took for rescue to come.

Psychiatric reports showed that food was major concern for the children, with Leto being far more occupied with it then Camilla. This behavior extended to making sure Camilla ate before he did and that Camilla ate more than he did. The experience of the transport deeply scarred the children, and a return to a normal environment had no effect so far. Granted the report was dated three days ago, which according to Garrus's note would mean the kids had only been out for a week at that point.

A medical report showed what Tali had come to fear. Both children were severely malnourished and underweight but otherwise in comparative good health. There was no physical reason as to why Leto didn't talk. It was merely chalked up to the trauma of the transport. As was Camilla's seemingly sudden burst of outgoingness. Prior to the transport, Leto had been the talker while Camilla had been the quiet twin.

Garrus had put in a footnote mentioning biotics and had references to several ancient turian legends. The heroes of those legends all were magical, capable of summoning up a shimmering shield that protected them from harm. Of course today they would have most likely been labeled biotics throwing up barriers. Maybe Camilla was able to summon up a barrier that saved them, and all Leto could do to help was keep quiet.

Whatever the case may be, that was just the tip of the iceberg of the files Garrus sent. There were simple things like birth certificates to a whole curriculum on turian education. Thankfully, Legion, in his zealous manner, had prepared for this. All of the strange extranet traffic the geth had been up to prior to Garrus' arrival made much more sense now, as did that posse of other platforms Legion had with him. Over the next few weeks in particular, but also in the years to come, Tali would be most grateful to the geth for helping out as much as they would. She still did a lot of the heavy parental lifting, but it was a great relief to have such dedicated help.

All in all, Tali felt she did alright for her first evening as a mother. Hopefully, she could do better tomorrow.


	11. Chapter 11

**Celebrity Status**

Garrus awoke to the sound of nothing. Not ringing, not shooting, nor explosion. Just the complete absence of sound. It was slightly worrying but not as worrying when Garrus tried to bring his hand up to his face and found that he couldn't. It was even more worrying when with great effort Garrus managed to tilt his head up enough to see his limbs weren't restrained.

Garrus managed to turn his head to the side, an action that proved to be slow and somehow taxing. And painful. His entire body felt like it was on fire. Into his field of view came Urdnot Wrex who looked like he was reading a data slate. Why would Wrex be there? Why wasn't there any sound coming out of his moving mouth?

Dr. Chakwas came to fill Garrus' field of vision. She held up a data slate that had written in turian 'lay still'. Garrus did. He didn't have much of a choice. He was too tired to move his head again and he couldn't move any of his extremities.

Dr. Chakwas left Garrus' sight and moved to the head of his bed. Wrex has gotten up and left the small infirmary that was unmistakably the one on the Normandy. But he hadn't been on the Normandy for months now. Why was he in such bad shape that he was under the good doctor's care again? He was pretty sure he didn't get shot with a missile this time. He had been very careful to avoid being shot by those down on Tuchunka.

Tuchunka. Mission. Bomb. Cerberus. Garrus was sure he came to Tuchunka on a turian ship. He was on the way back from Rannoch, having just dropped off his adopted children, when Primarch Victus rerouted him to the krogan home world. Why was the Normandy here?

"Testing, testing. Garrus can you hear me? If you can blink twice."

Garrus' eyes widened as sound suddenly flooded into his right ear. He tried to move his head so that he could see Dr. Chakwas but she firmly held his head still. Her vantage of him must has been sufficient to see him blink, so he did as she asked.

"Good. I'm going to turn your head and calibrate the other side. Shut your eyes if the pain gets too much or if we are moving too fast." Chakwas instructed. After a moment Garrus felt her gently turning his head setting the nerves in his neck on fire but Garrus endured. Mostly because if they stopped Garrus wasn't sure he'd have the resolve to start again.

But mercifully the epic journey to turn his head ended and he could breathe easy once more. It was sort of hard to head now that his right side of his head was against his pillow but that didn't stop Chakwas was talking.

"I'm activating and calibrating your second hearing implant. You lost 100% of your hearing in both ears. A direct result of all that fire support you called down on yourself. It's a miracle you didn't lose anything else. Only thing that saved you was that ATLAS mech chassis that fell on top of you. Which I understand you shattered the cockpit with your own talons. Explains why your right hand was a mangled mess of shattered bones. And your right forearm as well. Really Garrus when I said don't get hit with any more missiles I didn't mean to go punching robots.

The ATLAS shielded you from the worst of it. You have three broken ribs, two cracks ones, a fractured leg, in addition to your hand and arm, multiple lacerations and bruising of just about every inch of your body and a severe concussion. Knowing you, you'll try to be up and about and on the front lines again in a day or two. Due to the bruising to your spinal column I administered nerve inhibitors to your extremities. It should wear off in a while and we will slowly get you back your motor functions.

As for why Wrex was here, it was his turn. they've all been sitting by your bed for the last two days. Thought you weren't going to make it for a little while. And the Normandy was at Tuchunka because Wrex asked for Shepard's assistance in taking out a Reaper that was discovered there."

"Wait, I was saying all those questions out loud?" Garrus asked.

"Yes. You just couldn't hear yourself asking them." Dr. Chakwas replied as she moved his head back to the a neutral position. "I hear a belated congratulations is in order. You and Tali, tying the knot. You'll be happy to know we're headed back to Rannoch. I've ordered a month of convalescence leave for you and Tali is going to make sure you get it. Well most of it. No strenuous activity for the first week Garrus. I mean it. Otherwise you ribs will set wrong and they'll have to be broken again to set properly." With that the elderly doctor went back to her desk as the first of the visitors arrived.

Once word got out that Garrus was up everyone came to see him. Even EDI made an appearance that included Joker in tow. But Wrex, Jane and Liara took up most of the visiting time.

"The quad you have Garrus. I don't know if I should headbutt you for not telling me about that bomb or to congratulate you on being alive. Because I'm sure you would have told me, your friend, about that bomb earlier. Right friend? Finding out about it from human news is very disappointing." (A/N: For part of the report see GT Drabbles chapter 10)

Garrus explained the mission and the bomb as best he could after Wrex told him what he knew. If it was on human news already, clearly it wasn't classified any more.

"So the part about you singing, is that true? And dual wielding sniper rifles? One in each hand?" Wrex asked.

"Wrex, you know just as well as anyone that is foolish to do, even if you were a biotic. The recoil would snap your arm off." Garrus was going to have to read this report later. All Garrus did was fire the two sniper rifles he had one after the other, after quickly changing weapons. That way he could keep shooting while the weapon cooled down. The cool down feature that was standard on all turian weaponry was the only reason he and his men even stood a fighting chance. If they had to rely on thermal clips like the Alliance they wouldn't have lasted past the first day.

"How many others made it out?" Judging by the way everyone was now avoiding Garrus' gaze and shifting awkwardly, it probably wasn't that many. But Garrus had to know. When he had gathered up the survivors of the frigate, 55 out of 90 crew were alive. By the time they were at the bomb sight they were down to 20 just a short three days later.

"Six, not counting you." Jane answered. "Which is really remarkable Garrus. Given the amount of Cerberus dead in the vicinity you must have held off a few hundred operatives and a small armory worth of mechs. None of you should be alive."

"Is lt. Victus one of the six?"

"No. One of the survivors said he fell to his death disarming the bomb."

"Damn. He was the Primarch's son."

Silence settle on the room. It wasn't a great conversation topic but Garrus had needed to know.

"How'd I end up on the Normandy?" Garrus asked trying to lift that dark cloud he had cast.

"Oh this will be a fun story," Jane began. "So Wrex here calls us up saying there were reports of Reaper on Tuchunka and who is better at kicking Reaper butt then yours truly? So we came on by and were trying to track this thing down when we noticed two very odd things. A turian cruiser in orbit and a lot of Cerberus crawling around. Naturally your turian buddies were tight lipped about why they were here but they offered us some air support so we took it. And between finding that Reaper and summoning a HUGE thresher maw to beat the crap out of it you would think that would be enough. But we still had Cerberus wandering around only they weren't all that interested in us. They seemed far more interested fighting some other force which turned out to be you. We think that by the end of it you had drawn in and wiped out just about every Cerberus agent and troop on the planet. We just followed the trail of bodies and the sounds of explosions and found you all mangled at the end of it. And who better then Dr. Chakwas to put you back together again? The six other survivors were sent to the cruiser.

Which reminds me. When you get the chance could you maybe give them a shout. They were none too pleased with a human making off with their Proconsul but Wrex here threatened to beat them to death with a piece of rebar so they let it go. They've been 'escorting' us to Rannoch."

"I'll give them a call once here in a bit. Just one other question. Why are we headed to Rannoch?" Garrus asked having taken in Jane's story.

"Dr. Chakwas ordered convalescence leave for you. I checked turian medical regulations and she can do that. And what better way to make sure you take it then to drop you off with Tali?" Liara explained.

Garrus groaned. "Oh you've doomed me Dr. Chakwas. Once the Primarch finds out he'll flood me with all sorts of paper work."

A/N: Hey folks, you may have noticed the massive stitching and copying of Drabbles into Reboot Rebooted. I'm basically going to be using Drabbles as a companion piece concurrent with RR to touch on all the things I wanted to happen in the universe but couldn't manage to twist to be Garrus or Tali centric. The two pieces will be canon to each other and working with in the same timeline.


	12. Chapter 12

**Culture Shock**

"Tali lady, are you poor?"

The innocence of childhood is a true marvel. Children haven't yet learned about things like what is or is not appropriate to say or ask. They just do as they please, which out any filters in place to stop them. And so questions get asked that under normal circumstances wouldn't be asked. Such as Camilla's very innocent question the next morning.

"No sweetie. Why do you ask?" Tali wasn't sure how to exactly respond to the girl's question until the words fell out of her mouth seemingly on their own. Quarians were a very communal society. Individuals and families had very few personal goods. There was no need and no room on ships for more than a few small odds and ends. Most everything belonged to the ship and or Flotilla in general and every effort was put towards keeping those going. At most quarians had their suits which they got as adults and there was every chance that the suit was refurbished and sterilized. New environmental suits were expensive so it wasn't uncommon for a suit to see two or three quarian lifetimes of service before finally being stripped down for spare parts. Especially since internally, the quarians had a barter economy. Any galactic credits brought to individual ships or the Flotilla as part of a Pilgrimage were jealously guarded by captains and used extremely sparingly as possible. On some of the smaller ships, the crews were even allowed to weigh in or even vote on how those credits would be spent for the betterment of the ship.

But Tali never thought of herself as poor. She always had food to eat, a place to sleep and a wrench in her pocket. What more could a girl ask for? Her suit was a refurbished one as not a lot of quarians were as big as she was. At 5' 5" and **redacted **pounds, Tali was a little bigger than your average quarian female. Thankfully, most of that was in her lower body and turians, though only Garrus' opinion really mattered, were generally thighs and not breasts sort of people. Though with the ones jumping the species barrier it could be why they jumped in the first place.

Since the peace between the geth and quarians a few months ago the resettlement of Rannoch was moving forward at full speed. But that didn't mean the economy nor communal values developed over hundreds of years of ship board living had magically gone away. Families lived in small spaces tightly packed together in clusters, often unofficially arranged by the ship they came from. The economy was still barter based and it's not like the geth had kept the shopping centers of 300 years ago stocked and up to date. People just didn't have stuff in their new homes because there was no stuff to gather and furthermore no need.

So when young Camilla asked her question Tali just spoke honestly.

"You have no stuff in your house. And if you're poor Leto and I don't want to eat all your food. Mommy," Camilla paused and Tali watched the little girl visibly shudder as she tried to keep her voice steady. "Mommy said it's not nice to eat up someone's food when you're a guest."

"Oh sweetie, come here." Tali drew the child into a warm embrace. "It's okay to be sad and miss your mother. I miss my mother too. Maybe someday we can talk our mommies if you want."

"Leto at all the cookies at one of Mommy's friends once." Camilla mumbled into Tali's chest.

Tali couldn't help but smile as she drew back a little to look at the girl. "Well, we aren't poor Camilla. Like I told you and your brother last night there will always be plenty of food so I want you to stop worrying that. Okay, sweetie?"

The youngling just nodded.

"Now, let's get ready for the day. I have a lot of things to do today and could use you and your brother's help."

It turns out that just suddenly declaring yourself a family doesn't actually make you one instantly. Nor does declaring that you are going to be a mother two young children make you an expert mother either.

Tali didn't exactly have a plan for what to do with the children. She took them to work, and together with Legion and the small staff of other geth, kept an eye on the kids as they got their work done. At lunch she tuned out the hushed whispers and inquisitive stares of others at the cafeteria while she took the children and the same gaggle of geth quietly in tow. The same occurred at dinner and on the walk home, though Tali was grateful for the help in carrying the children.

After the children were put to bed Tali noticed the same geth were gathered in a little circle in the living room all facing each other. After a few moments the geth broke the circle and formed a perfectly straight line, five in back with Legion standing directly in front of the group, precisely in the middle.

"Tali-creator. We wish to know if we have failed Garrus-friend." Legion spoke. After a very pregnant pause he turned to gesture to the geth gather behind him.

"I'm sorry what?"

"Garrus-friend had explained that the Vakarian-subunits were to be taken care of by us as a 'favor'." Legion said even using air quotes when he said the word favor. "Your entering into the primary care of the subunits was not part of the original equation. We wish to know if we had done something wrong which forced you to enter the equation."

Tali took a moment to figure out what exactly Legion was saying and could only bury her face in both her palms. Everything was such a blur the past day and a half since Garrus had showed up with the children in tow planning to end things with her. It also explained a lot of the geth extranet traffic and why Legion suddenly had a small gaggle of them with him everywhere the children were. Granted, a day is not enough to establish a pattern of behavior but leave it to Legion to hop to a conclusion so quickly.

Tali had to spend the next five minutes explaining that the marriage between Garrus and herself wasn't exactly planned and that she promised to incorporate the geth more into the children's routines. Once that was established, of course. Mostly, she spent her time reinforcing the idea that no, the geth had not screwed up doing a favor for Garrus.

Why, they fixated so much on him was beyond her. Maybe because Legion did, and he was sort of their unofficial representative. At least to the quarians. However, she made the crucial error of not exactly defining nor asking just what exactly the geth would be helping with in regards to Leto and Camilla. And she paid for it the next day.

It was a painful experience to watch. It wasn't overly traumatic and the kids didn't seem bothered at all but it was cringe worthy. The geth had blocked out every waking moment of the kids day. From simple school lessons, to some physical exercise, to when they could have fun. Tali had actually heard one of the geth units declare the time and then state the children had exactly an hour to have fun. Most of that was spent with Camilla asking to do all sorts of activities that just didn't exist on Rannoch. Needless to say no fun was had that hour.

An then there was supper. By now rumors where swirling around the entire Flotilla. Gossip was extremely popular amongst the quarians as it was a cheap form of social entertainment. Aunty Rann had tracked Tali down and quietly reminded the young admiral that she was a public figure. And that when a public figure gets a very mysterious and quick visit from a turian cruiser, and suddenly has two turian children, people get curious.

So Tali told her aunt what had happened, explaining Garrus' visit and introducing the children. And the fact she was married now. There was some reprimanding about being rash and not notifying anyone on the quarian side about things. Especially about the marriage.

In addition to having to file a marriage notice in the morning, Tali was tasked with also releasing an official statement in regards to the children. Secrecy in the Flotilla, while it did exist, was something that was frowned upon culturally. When everyone depends on each other to survive, trust is paramount. That and denying anything often led to wilder and wilder rumors. Currently the rumors about Tali has shifted from her being brained washed and or held prisoner by the geth to her having built small disguises for geth infiltration units. Disguises that happened to look like turian children.

Tali's fourth day of motherhood went fairly smoothly. She filed the necessary paperwork, got the kids registered as her dependents, had her marriage to Garrus made known and set straight the silly rumors. And she managed to still a lot of her own work done. Things were looking up. That is until they stopped by the park on the way home.

Quarians don't spend their entire lives in suits. Children grow too fast for suits to be a practical so they are normally kept on special clean ships until they reach their early teen years. Then they get a suit so they can start getting hands on experience instead of just book instruction as their education. With the return to Rannoch, some parents have been adventurous enough to have their children live on the planet in protective sealed bubbles. Other more brazen parents have been letting their children run free without any sort of protection. Though it caused quite the stir, the reasoning was that Rannoch was their home and the planet wouldn't kill them.

And it hadn't, though there was a short period of time when it looked like it might. But thanks to those bold parents more and more children were growing up without environmental protection bubbles. This of course has encouraged adults to start experimenting with short amounts of exposure to their natural habitat. With lengthy amounts of sick days afterwards. While 300 years of shipboard living did weaken any already weak immune system, somewhere in the quarian genetic memory is Rannoch. And once the body remembers that this place isn't trying to kill it on purpose, things get better.

However one thing not natural to Rannoch is turians. So when two turian children show up at a location packed with quarian children playing on the geth build playground. Being the play ground the geth built as part of their mad scramble to make things ready for Leto and Camilla's arrival, it was a turian playground. The children of course didn't care. It was unlike anything they had ever seen and they all had a great time on it.

Being of turian design there were forts and trenches and all sorts of rooms in the forts where parents lost sight of their kids. But as long as the kids came when they were called, the parents took to visiting as they sat on benches around the perimeter of the playground area. Which is exactly what Tali did. She set her kids loose and they disappeared into the playground no one paid much attention to the fact there were two turian kids running around with a bunch of quarian kids.

Not until it was time to go. To say there was shock and outrage is an understatement. While gossip might move that the speed of light around the Flotilla, official announcements of a personal nature don't exactly make the rounds as quickly. And even then gossip moves at different speeds in different circles. Overtired parents don't gossip as much and as such it was news to them that Tali had kids. Turian kids. They had spent the better part of an hour playing with their virtually unprotected kids.

Tali would have to spend the next week making apologies though it helped that no one died. There were a few grave cases of illness but the kids all bounced back. And they all wanted to play together. So in the end no real harm was done.

Of course the children didn't understand what the big fuss was about. Their biggest concern was the language barrier though they managed through the universal language of youth.

"Tali lady how come I can understand the other kids but they can't understand me? You understand me. Legion, Lily, Larry, Lana, Leopold and Link all understand me. They even speak palevani to me."

Camilla had taken upon herself to name the gaggle of geth. If they had names before they were seemingly discarded for the new ones bestowed upon them by the turian girl.

Tali hadn't thought about it but what Camilla said was true. The geth, being geth, spoke whatever language was native to the organic they were addressing. And Tali could understand them because she had a translator built into her suit. The children it turned out had had military translators fitted on their way to Rannoch. It was a small implant fitted at the base of the skull and came with two very boring voices. One for males, and one for females. But it got the job done. Commercial translators tended to be tiny and disguised as jewelry and had much nicer voice software.

However, none of the quarian kids had translator. Why would they? And translators were expensive. A quarian got their translator right before they went on pilgrimage. Afterwards, they gave the translator back to the Flotilla so it could be reused by someone else. Tali was a special case in that she was an admiral. As she might have to meet and greet other species in the name of the Flotilla, Tali had been fitted with one of the nicest translators they had available.

So it came to pass that quarian language lessons were added to their list of daily activities. This would include Garrus when he showed back up on Rannoch looking worse for wear. Tali was most certainly not amused by how he spent his first few days of sick leave. But she put that matter to rest early and rather enjoyed having her family all together, even if it was for a short time.

**A/N:** GT Drabbles chapter 11 takes place after this chapter of GT RR.


	13. Chapter 13

**Walks with Garrus**

Garrus had been right. The Primarch had instantly flooded him with paperwork. So much so that he got home rather late on the second day of his sick leave. And it wasn't just paper work, there were mind numbing meetings.

The path towards this torture was because he had gotten himself a little battered on Tuchunka. And Dr. Chakwas had given him mandated medical leave and he wasn't going to argue with the woman who had put him back together. Twice.

Still, it wasn't that bad he supposed. Though he had arrived on the _Normandy_, it was the THS _Minthras_, the turian cruiser that had "escorted" him back to Rannoch that became his workplace. Where else was he going to find a ship with the necessary military grade communications systems with turian encryption software?

So Garrus made daily trips from the planet to the ship via shuttle. He even had a daily schedule that was presented to him by what Garrus later found out was his body guard detail. Garrus was pleased with neither. The ships commander seemed to think Garrus wasn't safe planet side, an opinion that Garrus quickly rectified. Though the body guards stayed, they were more of the ceremonial/ assistant types now.

The schedule Garrus didn't argue with at all once he found out the full story from a very embarrassed lt. Adamus, the officer in charge of his body guard or as they were now unofficially called, his praetorians. Having someone who was a good foot shorter and weighing half as much as your biggest, best and most veteran soldier utterly manhandle said soldier tends to make you listen to that person. And Tali had envoked the ancient right of turian wives. While wives most certainly didn't hold their husband's rank, there is a certain amount of humoring that has to go on. If not, the wife complains to the husband and generally makes his life miserable at home. So the husband is miserable at work, while professional, that irritation has an effect on the ranks all the way down. And they were on Tali's turf. Surrounded by geth. Big geth. Intimidating geth. Intimidating geth that were calmly gathering to watch Tali scream at lt Adamus and his men.

Something it seems that Tali failed to notice during her one sided conversation with Adamus. Adamus was all too happy to get his men and himself out of there and no sooner than they had lifted off the gathering geth dispersed. Still, Garrus had been presented with the schedule when Tali said they could pick him up. And Garrus decided it was in his best interest to stick to the schedule.

And it worked out well anyway. Morning on their part of Rannoch was evening on Menae. And that is when the hours of teleconferences were held. Garrus honestly didn't know why he was even in on those meetings. Yes he was technically Proconsul which meant he was supposed to be the most knowledgeable person for fighting the Reapers and supposed to lead the war effort. But he never had training in dealing with the sort of scale they were discussing. Interplanetary supply chains, troop movements, casualty reports, and combat reports. Reports, reports, reports. And then came the discussion about the reports.

And the red tape. Primarch Victus buried Garrus in paper work which he brought home in the afternoons. Tali had turned one of the many rooms in the manor into an office for herself and had a second desk brought in for him. While it was nice being able to spend time in each other presence, this sort of maddening bureaucratic hell was why Garrus had only lasted 15 years in the Army and 10 years at C-Sec. Any longer at both jobs and he would have been promoted entirely out of field work and solely to being a padd pusher. And Garrus hated padds and the forms and the reports they inevitably had on them.

Fortunately, whatever he had done that afternoon could be pushed onto his praetorians for double checking and filing in the morning while he sat through his meetings. At least he could vent to Jane for a little while. The Normandy stayed in orbit for a week on the excuse that Dr. Chakwas had to give Garrus a check up at the end of that time. It was a weak excuse but no one said anything about it. The Normandy crew needed the breather and it gave people a chance to visit.

And Liara confirmed what Garrus had been dreading. Camilla was a biotic. The early manifestation of her abilities wasn't an issue so much as the fact that she was biotic to begin with. Biotics are very rare among turians though they have been in turian society for millennia. Some of the epic stories had heroes and villains alike that had strange powers like the ability to create invisible shields to protect themselves. The stigma came from the fact that turian society is very group oriented and very uniform. Deviation from the accepted norm tends to get people ostracized. And in today's turian society there is but one acceptable job for a biotic, in the army's special cabal units. High pay, high risk specialized units meant to do things that no normal turian should be asked to do.

That though, was years down the road. Years Garrus figured that would have already decided if the turians, and indeed this cycle's advanced life, would be around for. If things turned out okay, maybe Camilla's future wouldn't be as grim as Garrus feared it could be.

As it was, things weren't looking good. Space superiority had been established above Menae but that was all. Only problem is that Menae is a moon. Moons have orbits. Orbits mean that the fleet protecting the moon and keeping that superiority had to move with the moon. Any ground forces that were on Palaven itself spent half their time under hostile skies. And the ground forces dedicated to Paleven were substantial. The entirety of the krogan reinforcements were on Palaven and embroiled in door to door fighting in several major cities. Or what was left of them anyway. Aerial and space bombardment from both sides had reduced the 5 largest cities to rubble in the last three months. Still the turians poured it on. Units were pulled from all over the Hierarchy. And thus far the Reapers had waged war on the greatest military of this cycle for three months and achieved a stalemate.

However it was not something that the turians could sustain indefinitely. Already casualties have reached 1.7 billion on Palaven, that were confirmed. Palaven had had a population of over 6 billion. How many were left alive and unindoctrinated were two entirely separate questions. It didn't help matters any that the Reapers were reanimating and morphing the dead to supplement their troops.

What the turians needed was another ally. One with a navy. As powerful as the turian navy was, it was practically abandoning larger and larger portions of Hierarchy space to fuel the fight for Palaven. The only positive of this is that the Reapers seemed to be throwing just as much effort at Palaven that these under protected areas weren't attacked. The Reapers didn't seem to have the numbers as they were spread too thin across the entire galaxy.

Earth was for all intensive purposes lost. Garrus hadn't the heart to tell Jane that the Hierarchy was contemplating not honoring the agreement made on Menae. It all depended on how exhausted the turians were after Palaven was retaken. The humans wouldn't offer their fleets, what was left of them, to help free Palaven.

The asari and salarians, though their homeworlds or territories weren't under siege refused to lend their fleets as well. Understandably, political relations between the turians and the asari and salarians had sunken to a rather low point.

The elcor didn't have a fleet. While surprisingly formidable on the ground, the lack of space assets made them an unattractive ally. Still negotiations had opened to bring the elcor into the war under the turian banner. Similarly the hanar and their drell clients lacked a fleet and had limited ground forces to offer.

The batarians weren't an option either. Being the first hit by the Reapers had left them in even worse shape than the quarians when the quarians had abandoned Rannoch. Besides, there were few cultural ties that could possibly bridge the hostility that the batarians had toward the other races in the galaxy.

At least with the krogan there was martial prowess and honor and tradition to work with. And the fact that Urdnot Wrex could and would personally headbutt anyone that stepped out of line too far. Similarly, Garrus had learned that turians thought he could snipe anything to death. Just because he was the first to take down brutes, and the only one to do so with single shots. The fact that he was Proconsul and Wrex was Warlord, and that they were friends surely had no effect on the currently war.

It is said that wars aren't won on the battle field but rather in back rooms. And it isn't so much that the battle field victories dictate the terms as it is who you know. Truthfully, Palaven wouldn't have its krogan reinforcements if Garrus hadn't met Wrex through Shepard. Without their initial wacky adventures hunting down Saren, Garrus and Wrex wouldn't have gotten to know each other. Without that bond of friendship, the genophage deal, much less the summit itself might have never happened.

This would hold true down the road. Garrus would have never met Tali or Legion. And without knowing them, history might have turned out very differently.

For example, he never would have started to take walks in the afternoon and evenings. At first it was to stretch his legs and to get some light exercise. Later it was to see around his new home and to have private discussions with people.

Sometimes those walks where for him to vent. Other times people vented at him. One incident that stood out was the time Garrus and Jane went for a walk. Jane was trying to get a feel for when the turian fleet might show up over Earth and Garrus was trying to convince her to get some Alliance fleet assets directed towards Palaven. Not a lot, just some token force. Change was coming that he could discuss with Jane but if she could manage that, it would make a world of difference.

But Jane couldn't As a ltc she had command of the Normandy and that was it. A single ship wouldn't be a big enough gesture. Five at the very least, more would be better. The problem was Jane's clout. She didn't have enough. Of the ranking Admiralty only Hackett didn't openly hate her guts.

Which gave Garrus a horrible idea. A walk with Liara revealed that she somehow knew of the impending galaxy shattering events that were to come. Once Garrus got over just how good of an information network Liara had, though she refused to out her source, it was easy to get Liara onboard. Liara arranged things so that it couldn't be traced back to either herself or Garrus since what they were doing wasn't exactly legal. Toying with intergalactic politics that is. Still it gave some hope that humanity could be saved.*

There was little hope for the asari though. They were entrenched in their position and though Liara would try to get her father to help there was little reason to believe that it would do any good. So Liara made quiet arrangements to have her sister and father brought to Rannoch for safe keeping.

This of course required a walk with Legion and Tali to get the okay from both governments to give Liara's relatives what would essentially be refugee status. On a more personal level, Liara was trading safety of her family for biotic lessons for Camilla.

There were walks with Legion and Tali as well. Even walks with other members of the Admiralty Board. Admiral Gerrel nearly blew a gasket when he saw just how large a chunk of land Legion had given to Garrus. And the massive compound that Legion and his fellow geth kept expanding and adding to. Fortunately they were a good distance from town and this was the only land that the geth had formally claimed.

Apart from that, the walk went more or less according to plan. Garrus, with a lot of previous coaching from Tali and some previous discussions with the Primarch, got the quarians into the war. As the main supply force.

Militaries are vast entities and more often than not what you see on the battle field makes up a tiny portion of a military. Turians are an exception to this with everyone serving mandatory rotations as infantry. However, some 30% of the turian navy was tied up in just lugging supplies from point A to point B. And these weren't cargo haulers. Like the rest of its society, turian "merchant marine ships" were fully capably combat ships that happened to be a little more suited for freight. The quarians with their massive navy would relieve the turians ships on supply duty and provide their own escorts as well.

There were some wondering as to why Garrus wasn't asking the quarians Light and Heavy fleets into the fray over Palaven. Garrus answered with, "Admirals, there are slightly less than 17 million quarians alive in this galaxy right now. I received a casualty report with that many names on it this morning."

Garrus did have one carrot to throw the Admiralty Board's way and it is probably what made them agree to his proposition in the first place. The Turian Hierarchy would officially recognize the reestablished quarian government as a legitimate government and member of the galactic community. After 300 years as galactic pariahs this recognition meant a lot.

And its meaning was not lost on the geth. Or at the very least Legion, the geth's unofficial leader. Legion's only demand had been official recognition for the quarians. As Legion explained it, the geth were perfectly happy to live with the quarians and even under their political umbrella so long as the geth were allowed to exist. And seeing as there were only 17 million quarians and over 20 billion geth, survival of the geth species was more or less assured. The fight over Rannoch had been a more symbolic one as it turned out. The geth really didn't want to harm their creators but weren't going to let them back on Rannoch until the quarians agreed to let them live in peace. The geth knew that Rannoch was ideologically important to the quarians and had thus retained control of their creators world knowing the quarians would come back some day. The idea being that maybe a dialogue could be started. Of course with the quarians always shooting first that made things difficult.

Now however, the geth had to be brought in the war on the turians side. It helped that the quarians were going. It helped that Garrus had been authorized to give them diplomatic recognition the same as he gave the quarians. But what truly blew his mind was how he got the geth into the war in the first place. He just asked Legion for help. As a favor.

"Wait. You're telling me Legion, that if I ask you as a representative of the Hierarchy for geth help you have to think about it. But if I ask as your friend, the entire geth fleet will be over Palaven in a week."

"That is correct Garrus-friend."

"Why Legion? I have to ask. It's been driving me, Tali, Liara, Jane, everybody, crazy. Why? Why did you build that manor? Or set out all this land? Finish up that school and park so quickly? Arrange for 27/10 babysitting services for Leto and Camilla? And me. Why am I so damned important as a friend that the geth are willing to march to war for me, but not when a foreign government asks?"

"Because you are our friend."

Legion did elaborate after Garrus' facepalm. While the decision to activate Legion and to keep Legion on the Normandy were Shepard's call, Legion had learned that it was Garrus' council that had lead to Shepard doing so. Tali had been wholely against it and it had marked a trying time on all their friendships. Shepard had sided with Garrus mostly because if things went sideways, Garrus had agreed to be the one to put Legion down.

However, the way Legion, and thus the geth, saw it, Garrus had given Legion a chance to live along side organics. And ultimately that is all they wanted. So while Legion had been originally sent to study Shepard, his mission changed to study Garrus. The idea being that if the geth could identify traits about Garrus, then maybe some of those traits could be markers about organics that could help the geth identify organics that would let them live. Or at least not shoot them right away. The long term plan had been to learn said traits, develop better communication skills and then try to isolate a group of quarians to talk to.

That never panned out but its importance still resonated with the geth. Since the Morning Dawn War, Garrus was the first to give them a chance. The fact that he called Legion a friend only seemed to endure Garrus to the geth as a whole. And when Garrus had called Legion explaining about Leto and Camilla the geth couldn't have been more happy. Yes in the past geth had helped raise quarian children but they always had someone watching over them. Leto and Camilla were to be placed entirely under geth care. The geth had no intentions of betraying that trust.

At this point Garrus had to guiltily admit he asked Legion because he had been planning on breaking up with Tali and because Garrus knew that Legion would do his best for the children. Legion stated that the geth didn't care. An organic had trusted a geth enough to make him essentially a godfather. Naturally the geth were a crestfallen when Garrus and Tali got married, though they took solace in the fact that Legion had performed the barebones ceremony. Fortunately, Tali leave gives the geth a free hand with the kids which boosted their spirits. Tali's only interference was to help smooth out scheduling and to add a few lessons of her own. Mainly quarian language and dance. Being more or less allowed to have an equal hand in the children's raising has lifted geth spirits, as they see it as their chance to prove they can be trusted.

All this tied back to Garrus as he is seen as the great catalyst that brought peace between the geth and their creators. If he hadn't gambled on activating Legion, the geth believe they would have been forced to destroy their creators. Garrus' willingness to ask for favors from Legion is seem as proof that Legion is seen as an equal. The fact that Garrus has called Legion friend is just the cherry on top of it all.

So when Proconsul Vakarian of the Turian Hierarchy asks the Geth Collective for aid, the geth have to think about it. They have no dealings with the Hierarchy. However if Garrus-friend needs a favor...

In the end, Garrus talked Legion into accepting separate political recognition. If the geth were happy doing whatever the quarians asked of them that was fine. But Garrus said that as the first sentient race of this cycle, it was the geth's duty to set the stage for others that might follow in their footsteps. Legion agreed, but only if Garrus agreed to getting geth citizenship on account that if the geth were to be a political entity, they couldn't give away their land to noncitizens. Even if it was to Garrus-friend.

And so Garrus and his family became the first organic citizens of the Geth Collective. EDI became the first non-geth synthetic citizen. Dual citizenship actually for Tali and Garrus, though they had to sell it as an political appeasement act to their respective governments. Garrus had the easier sell. The Primarch had told him to get help anywhere he could at any reasonable cost.

So it came to pass that a week later the Primarch made a visit to the Citadel. Among other things he had the turian Councilor have an official unilateral ceremony welcoming the quarians and geth to the galactic community.

A week after that, 40 dreadnoughts and their escorting ships came crashing out of the mass relay near Palaven. Their opening hail to the turian fleet was "Garrus-friend sent us."

***Go see Chapter 12 of Drabbles**


	14. Chapter 14

**Bad turian **

**or turian courting explained**

Garrus often said he was a bad example of a turian. Tali always thought he sold himself short on that account but right now as she lay in his arms in post coital bliss she was rather alright with him being a bad turian. After all he had gotten the courtship order rather messed up and almost completely backwards.

First off, they had jump directly to sex. Tell she jumped him. And he never said no. And it was right before they were going through the Omega-4 relay and could have been killed. In traditional turian fashion, that is supposed to come after marriage. Supposed to. In practice at least a few dates. Quarians at least tend to stick to the after marriage part. Apart from limited clean rooms that have to be scheduled on the Flotilla, exposing yourself to anyone is a huge cultural deal for the quarians. It means you will get sick, so whoever you are exposing yourself too better be worth it.

On the upside, the weak up adaptive immune system of the quarians meant that repeated expose did lessen the severity of illness and could eliminate it all together. This pleased Tali greatly as she planned on "linking suits" with Garrus often while he was on Rannoch. Dr. Chakwas said that they couldn't have strenuous activity. That was fine with Tali, she didn't mind doing the work at the start of the month if Garrus paid her back later.

Secondly, they got married. Yes they did at least know each other a few years first but they hadn't even gone on a proper date. And Garrus was being foolish about things so they rushed that part. They didn't even have any sort of ceremony either. However, Tali was alright with it. Their relationship wasn't a normal one that followed regular norms so if they did things differently it was okay.

Thirdly they had kids already. Turians are quite long lived and don't generally start having children until their mid 30s. Garrus' sister Solana, while not bucking the norm, had had her children right after her 15 years of service were up. Garrus had confided in Tali that he suspected that her marriage was an honor marriage, as an unwed mother is something rather shameful in turian society. Still it had seemed like a happy one.

Fourthly, Garrus had had a house built. Turian males had been building houses to impress females for thousands of years. It made practical sense too. On a planet where the solar radiation is trying to kill you, getting out of direct sunlight is a good thing. And so part of turian mating rituals was to build a house. Or to have a house built. Or if you go back far enough, find a nice cave. The idea of course was to provide a safe place to raise young. And as time marched on, the size of the house was an indicator of their ability to provide. To be fair, Garrus did have nothing to do with this particular house at all. Legion had just found the biggest one he could and started building it. But then Legion had given it to Garrus to be his home and now that they were married it was also Tali's home. And while the male turian might build the house to attract a mate, it was the female that decorated it and made it a home.

Fifthly, Garrus didn't hunt. At least as far as Tali knew. There really wasn't any opportunity to see if Garrus had any food gathering skill. Though if his skill with his rifle was any indication maybe it was a good thing he didn't hunt. Local wildlife would never stand a chance. And in a weird twisted way Garrus did at least get this one sort of in the right order. Maybe. Tali wasn't sure.

Normally, the step that went right before the building of the house was to show off your ability to get food. Sometimes this step was combined with the house as showing a house with a full larder helped. More traditionally, if things were serious between two turians, this is when the male went to meet his prospective mate's parents. And he normally brought a gift of food. Over time and social classes this could be expanded the male having to throw a feast for his future in-laws. And the main course was to have been caught by the male himself though nowadays most just settle for the excuse to have a party. Alternatively, the male could also personally prepare the meal himself if he was a decent chef or wanted to suck up a little harder to his prospective in-laws.

Garrus got this step sort of right back on the Normandy. He used to share meals with her. Even brought her a few. Turian nutrient paste wasn't exactly the greatest nor a great show of hunting prowess but the gesture was sweet.

Sixth, he never isolated her from her friends or others to get her alone to show her he was interested. It also supposedly had the advantage of focusing the female's attention on the male and made him more attractive as he was the only viable option. This would immediately lead to dates of course. Or at least after the turians were out of the stone age. Though, if you pressed a turian male hard enough or if he really truly liked a girl he would do a traditional mating dance. The male generally dressed up, and tried to show off as much as possible that he was a fine physical specimen. If this went well then things progressed to offering food to the female, then to her family and then building and showing off a house. And after all that, if the female was still interested then they got married. Or she wander off and the male would tear down the house and start the whole thing over again.

Well Garrus never got around to isolating Tali from her friends. On the SR1 she wasn't considered an adult and on the SR2 there were few that she would have called her friends. She spent time with Garrus by default. She wasn't going to get chummy with Cerberus people.

However Tali wasn't complaining. She had gotten to go out on a double dates with Garrus as Liara and Jane had come along as well. They had gone dancing. Garrus was still so banged up he was reduced to doing the Shepard Shuffle but everyone had a good laugh about it and he stayed out on the dance floor the entire time. And they had gone to karaoke as well. While Garrus might have gotten laughed at for his dancing, his singing was something else entirely. There is something about that flanged voice of turians that is just so hypnotic. Add in Garrus' voice on top of subharmonics and Garrus was a crowd favorite that night. Nevermind that almost none of the quarian crowd could understand him, Garrus could carry a tune and it sounded beautiful even across the language barrier.

And they took walks along their little stream. Sometimes just the two of them so they could talk, sometimes with the kids and the geth the inevitably followed them. It really was all so backwards, really getting to know the person you married after the fact but love was never a rational emotion. And Tali knew enough about Garrus to know this marriage would last forever. He was too loyal for it not to. So was she for that matter. Yes she knew they would have their fights. And they would change as people. But they would adapted.

That's all marriage was in the end. A lifelong agreement that even though people change, they would stay the same enough at the core that each person could adapt to the smaller changes in their partner. Like how Garrus and Tali had changed over the last 3 years they had known each other. They had seen the changes and adjusted. And at the core they were still the same. That was more than enough for Tali.

"You're mine you know."

"What's that?" Garrus asked.

"Mine. You're all mine. No one else's." Tali reaffirmed.

"Oh course I'm yours. I wouldn't rather be anyone else's."

"Good. Mine." Tali said. She was feelingly playful and possessive.

"And you're mine too right?" Garrus asked.

"Hmmm. Nope. You're mine and I'm mine. Everything is mine."

Garrus laughed. "Even the kids and the house and Legion?"

"Yup. Everything is mine." Tali giggled.

"That's so mean Tali. I like it."

"Good, because I'm going to show you that you're mine." Tali replied kicking off round two.


End file.
